Rates of disability in rural America are 80 percent higher than in the cities. While the coal mining region of the Appalachian mountains has a score of counties with more than ten percent of the adult population qualifying for disability payments for Social Security, in other counties, only one to two percent of residents qualify as disabled. In Washington, D.C. — where Social Security is at the center of a national debate on federal spending — only 3.2 percent of adults rely on these kinds of benefits.
Oregon ranks 32nd in the nation in the percentage of working age population who are disabled.
Read more about the geography of disability in the United States at http://www.dailyyonder.com/geography-disability/2011/11/29/3619