Most counties saw higher percentages of residents with a disability in 2024 than in 2023, according to new federal data. Researchers and advocates say the trend reflects an aging population, long-term effects of COVID-19, and persistent gaps in preventive care.
By Michael Phillips | MDBAYNews
The share of Marylanders living with a disability grew last year, with 12 of the state’s 16 largest jurisdictions recording increases, according to American Community Survey estimates released in September 2025 by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the Maryland Department of Planning.
Statewide, 12.3 percent of Maryland residents had a disability in 2024, up from 11.6 percent in 2023 — a 0.7 percentage point increase that translates to tens of thousands of additional residents newly counted among those with a qualifying physical, cognitive, hearing, vision, self-care, or independent living limitation.
The increases were not concentrated in any single region. Calvert County, in Southern Maryland, recorded the sharpest jump — from 9.4 percent to 12.3 percent, a nearly 3-point rise in a single year. Harford County climbed 2.6 points, from 11.2 to 13.8 percent. Carroll County rose 2.4 points to reach 13.7 percent. All three shifts push those counties well above the state average.
Baltimore City, already among the jurisdictions with the highest disability rates in the state, climbed again — from 15.8 percent to 17.7 percent, an increase of 1.9 percentage points. One in six city residents now lives with a disability.
Frederick County, often held up as a model of economic growth and relative prosperity in Central Maryland, was not immune: its disability rate rose 1.4 points, from 9.8 to 11.2 percent.
A Statewide Picture With Outliers
Not every jurisdiction moved upward. Prince George’s County and Montgomery County each edged down slightly, by 0.1 percentage points each — statistically negligible changes. Howard County, consistently the lowest-ranked county in the state for disability prevalence, fell marginally from 9.0 to 8.7 percent. And Allegany County, which has led the state in disability rates for years, actually saw a modest decline — from 23.6 to 22.8 percent — though it remains the outlier at the top, with more than one in five residents carrying a disability.
Cecil County recorded the largest single-year decrease, dropping 1.7 points from 14.5 to 12.8 percent.
The margin-of-error data released alongside the estimates cautions that some apparent differences may not be statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level. But the breadth of the upward movement — 12 of 16 jurisdictions, plus the state overall — suggests the trend is real rather than a measurement artifact.
What’s Driving the Increase?
Public health researchers point to several overlapping factors.
Maryland’s population is aging, and disability rates climb steeply with age. The share of residents 65 and older has grown steadily across most counties, and older adults are far more likely to report a disability than younger residents. That demographic shift alone accounts for a portion of the increase year over year.
Long COVID has also entered the picture as a measurable factor. Federal researchers and disability advocates have noted that a significant portion of Americans who experienced COVID-19 infection have reported ongoing conditions — chronic fatigue, cognitive difficulties, respiratory impairment — that qualify as disabilities under ACS survey definitions. The Census Bureau began capturing these effects in earnest in surveys administered in 2022 and 2023, and the ripple into 2024 estimates was anticipated by some analysts.
Preventive care gaps may be a third driver. Maryland’s 2020-2023 State Disabilities Plan Survey, conducted by the Maryland Department of Disabilities among 426 residents with disabilities, found that 64 percent of respondents cited health care service availability as a top concern — specifically the difficulty of finding providers, getting timely appointments, and accessing the types of services they need. Reduced access to preventive and primary care can allow conditions to progress to the point of disability.
The Persistent Geography of Disability
Even as rates rise across the state, the underlying geographic inequality remains stark.
Allegany County’s 22.8 percent disability rate is more than 2.6 times Howard County’s 8.7 percent. The two counties sit at opposite ends of nearly every socioeconomic indicator — income, educational attainment, insurance coverage — and disability follows that same fault line.
Western Maryland and Baltimore City consistently top the rankings; the Washington-Baltimore suburban corridor consistently sits near the bottom. That pattern has persisted across every year of available ACS data, and this year’s numbers reinforce it.
For policymakers and service providers, the implication is that a statewide increase in disability prevalence does not land evenly. The jurisdictions that saw the sharpest rises — Calvert, Harford, Carroll — are largely suburban counties that have not historically been at the center of disability services planning. If their rates are genuinely moving upward, demand for transportation, personal care, assistive technology, and housing supports in those counties may be increasing faster than current infrastructure anticipates.
What the Numbers Don’t Capture
The American Community Survey measures self-reported disability across six domains: hearing difficulty, vision difficulty, cognitive difficulty, ambulatory difficulty, self-care difficulty, and independent living difficulty. It does not capture the full range of chronic conditions, nor does it measure severity. A resident who reports difficulty walking up a flight of stairs and a resident who uses a power wheelchair both count in the same category.
The survey also covers only the civilian, non-institutionalized population — meaning residents of nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and correctional institutions are not reflected in these figures. In jurisdictions with significant institutional populations, actual disability prevalence could be higher than reported.
Editor’s Note on Sources
Disability rate estimates are drawn from the 2023 and 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, prepared by the Maryland Department of Planning’s State Data and Analysis Center, released September 2024 and September 2025, respectively. The figures cover the 16 Maryland jurisdictions with populations of 65,000 or more. Survey background data is from the Maryland Department of Disabilities 2020-2023 State Disabilities Plan Survey.
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