In Lebanon, the same population is described by wildly different numbers depending on who is counting. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population in Lebanon — well over 600,000 people — is thought to live with a disability1 . Yet the number varies depending on the source. The country’s only standing disability registry, the Ministry of Social Affairs’ Personal Disability Card system, counts just 103,000 persons2 , and it is limited to Lebanese citizens. A separate UNDP estimate, released before the large-scale refugee returns of 2025 and 2026, places the figure closer to 900,0003 .
Each of these figures is based on a different methodology, covers a different population, and reflects a different moment in time. They cannot be reconciled, and that, in itself, is the challenge. This is the starting point of this paper: knowing who persons with disabilities are and where they are located is itself a condition for protecting their rights, especially in situations of displacement and conflict that Lebanon has experienced repeatedly in recent years and continues to encounter today.
This paper traces how this gap in knowledge emerged, what it costs in moments of crisis, and what donors, humanitarian actors, and the Lebanese Government can each do to address it.
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