View Map with Neighborhood Labels

Narrative

• Relatively fewer St. Louis County seniors are disabled compared to the state. There are a total of 94,469 persons age 65 and older in St. Louis County who reported having at least one disability. This is 65.8 percent of all St. Louis County seniors compared with 78.5 percent statewide (see Table 1).
• The proportion of St. Louis County seniors reporting one or more disabilities varied greatly among the neighborhood areas (Map 1). At the highest level more than 90 percent of residents 65 and older in the Moline (94.1 percent), Berkeley/Airport (92.3 percent), and Wellston/Pagedale (90.4 percent) Areas report having at least one disability (Graph 1). Those three areas are also included among the areas having the high poverty rates. At the other extreme there were only four areas, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Southwest and Town and Country in which fewer than half the seniors reported one or more disabilities. Not coincidentally those four areas are also included among those having the highest median household income.
• The number of seniors reporting disabilities ranged from as low as 1,295 in the Berkeley/Airport Area to 4,874 in the Shrewsbury/Affton Area and 4,845 in the Lemay Area. Aside from those extremes, there were between 1,800 and 3,500 seniors reporting disabilities in 25 of the remaining 34 neighborhood areas. (Graph 2)

Specific Types of Disabilities
• Table 2 reports that physical disabilities are the most frequently reported. More than 33,000 (23 percent) of the county's seniors report being physically disabled. Next most frequently reported was the nearly 24,000 who reported "Go-outside-home" disability. Following those two, other disabilities, in order of frequency reported, were "sensory disability" reported by just over 15,000 (10.6 percent), "mental disability" reported by more than 11,000 (8.1 percent) and "self-care disability" reported by nearly 11,000 (7.5 percent).
• The distribution of each of these disabilities is reported on the attached maps and graphics. These graphics reinforce a very clear relationship between the number of disabled in each area, regardless of the type of disability and the relative level of family and personal income in each area. The percent of the population reporting "physical disability" ranged from a low of only 14 percent in the Chesterfield Area to a high of 31 percent each in the Maplewood/Richmond Heights and the Normandy Areas. Although there were only two areas in which more than 30 percent reported physical disability there were 5 additional areas in which between 28 and 30 percent reported physical disability. All seven of those areas have relatively high concentrations of poor population.
• The proportion of the nearly 24,000 seniors reporting "go-outside-home" disability ranged among the Areas from a low of less than 10 percent in the Chesterfield and Town and Country Areas to a high of 25 percent of the senior population in the Berkeley/Airport, University City/Olivette North and Wellston/Pagedale Areas.
• The percent of senior population reporting "sensory disability" ranged from a low of 8 percent or less in five areas (Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, North Ballwin/Manchester, Southwest, and Town and Country) to a high of 15 percent or more in three Areas. The highest percentage was found in Overland (15.9 percent), followed by Des Peres/Valley Park (15.3 percent) and the Berkeley/Airport (15.0 percent) Areas. Despite these extremes a majority of the areas (23) included between 8 percent and 12 percent of seniors reporting sensory disabilities.
• Only 7.5 percent of the senior population reported "mental disability" which is less than one-third of the number reporting "physical disability". Although the percent of seniors reporting "mental disability" ranged from a low of only 4.9 percent in Des Peres/Valley Park to a high of 14.6 percent in the Moline Area there was relatively little range among the remaining 35 areas. Among those 35 areas the percent reporting "mental disability" ranged between 6 and 11 percent.
• Only 7.5 percent of seniors reported a "self-care disability" and the range among the 37 neighborhood areas was quite small. Wellston/Pagedale with 13.8 percent and Moline with 12.1 percent were the only areas having greater than 11 percent self-care disabled. Altogether 28 of the 37 areas reported less than 10 percent of the seniors being self-care disabled.

Maps

click map for larger version	click map for larger version
click map for larger version	click map for larger version
click map for larger version	click map for larger version

Tables

Population Age 65 and Older, Older Adults with Disabilities, and Percent of Older Adults with Disabilities, 2000	HTML	PDF
Population Age 65 and Older by Type of Disabilities and Percent of Total Population Age 65 and Older, 2000	HTML	PDF

Graphics

• Percent of Population Age 65 and Older With a Disability
• Population Age 65 and Older With a Disability
• Population Age 65 and Older With a Go-outside-of-home Disability
• Population Age 65 and Older With a Physical Disability
• Population Age 65 and Older With a Self-care Disability