Registered PWDs in PH now at 2.5M

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MANILA, Philippines — There are now more than 2.5 million Filipinos who are registered as persons with disabilities (PWDs), according to the National Council for Disability Affairs (NCDA).

Citing data from the Department of Health (DOH) as of June 17, the NCDA reported that the number of registered PWDs in the country grew by 35 percent from over 1.8 million in June 2024.

The majority, or 827,189, have physical disabilities that limit the function of their limbs or fine or gross motor abilities. Others, however, suffer from invisible disabilities.

READ: Beyond fake PWD IDs: Inclusion, accessibility, and disability rights

Invisible disability

These include speech impairment (335,763); psychosocial disability (314,210); visual disability (251,302); mental disability (152,762); intellectual disability (137,491); deaf/hard of hearing (129,021); cancer (110,880); learning disability (102,623); and rare disease (49,112).

The DOH data showed that all 17 regions in the country reported an increase in registered PWDs between 2024 and 2025.

Authorities attributed the increase to better reporting mechanisms and accessibility of health services provided primarily by local governments, which enabled them to identify more disability cases. /cb