Disability Approval Rates: Years, Diagnoses and Limits

An approval rate is meaningful only when you know who was counted, which program was involved and what decision was measured. SSA publishes useful national statistics and has published diagnosis-based research. Those sources do not provide a current personal approval probability for each condition in our directory.

Start With the Difference Between an Allowance and an Award

A medical allowance means the medical review found the person disabled under the applicable rules. An award also depends on nonmedical requirements. A claim may be denied before medical review for a technical reason, or a medical allowance may be followed by a nonmedical denial. These outcomes produce different percentages even when they describe the same filing cohort.

A diagnostic share of awards asks how many people already awarded benefits had a particular diagnosis. It does not ask how many applicants with that diagnosis were approved. Dividing this year’s awards by this year’s applications also mixes people from different filing years and is not a reliable substitute for a cohort approval rate.

A Dated National Example

In SSA’s 2024 Disability Insurance Annual Statistical Report, Table 61, the disabled-worker row for applications filed in 2023 reports 299,738 initial medical allowances out of 868,950 initial medical decisions: 34.5%. This includes Social Security-only applications and the Social Security portion of concurrent Social Security/SSI applications. It covers all diagnoses, not one condition.

The table’s data are current through June 2024. Claims still awaiting a medical decision are not in that medical-decision denominator, and technical denials before medical review are excluded. The report warns that rates for recent filing years change as pending claims are decided. This is an initial medical allowance rate, not a final award rate or a forecast for a new applicant.

Historical Approval Figures by Diagnosis

The figures below concern 2009 claims and were published in an SSA working paper released in June 2018. They are historical research, not current approval odds. They illustrate why a number needs a clear definition before it is used.

The study examined initial disabled-worker claims from people ages 18–65, including DI-only and concurrent DI/SSI claims. After excluding technical denials, pending initial decisions, survivors and dependents, and other records outside the study’s selection, its final population contained 1,578,354 claimants whose primary diagnosis fell within the 100 selected codes. A condition could be recorded as a primary or secondary diagnosis, so the same person can appear in more than one diagnostic group.

For each row, the numerator is the initial medical allowances among selected applicants with that diagnosis; the denominator is selected applicants with that diagnosis and an initial medical decision. Table 3 publishes the percentage rather than a separate numerator and denominator count for every row. We reproduce the observed percentage column, not the paper’s model-correlation estimates. The table is a selected research table and does not include every condition.

The broad affective-and-mood-disorder category is not a depression-only rate, and the back-disorder or leukemia categories do not identify every subtype. The chronic-renal-failure category is not all chronic kidney disease. Diagnostic coding, treatment, rules and the applicant population have changed since 2009. A historical percentage should not be used to rank which diagnosis someone should claim or to predict a person’s result.

Which Reports Are Current?

At our October 17, 2026 source check, SSA’s latest listed Disability Insurance annual report was the 2025 edition, released in October 2026. Its application-outcome tables and diagnostic award tables answer different questions. SSA’s 2025 SSI annual report, released in August 2026, is a separate publication with its own adult, child and program breakdowns. Do not describe an all-age SSI figure as an adult SSDI rate or add both parts of concurrent claims as if they were different people.

SSA also published diagnosis research in 2012 using 1993–2008 initial determinations and in 2013 using a DI-only worker sample from 1997–2004 filings. The studies have different exclusions and outcomes. Initial allowance, eventual allowance after appeal and a model’s predicted result are not interchangeable.

What to Check Before Trusting a Percentage

• The filing or decision year, publication date and date through which decisions were observed.
• The program, age group and handling of concurrent SSDI/SSI claims.
• Whether the outcome is an initial medical allowance, a reconsideration or hearing outcome, or a final benefit award.
• The diagnostic definition, including whether the code is primary, secondary or a broad family of conditions.
• The numerator, denominator, technical-denial exclusions and unresolved claims.

Hearing outcomes concern a selected group that reached a hearing. They should not be added to an initial allowance rate to calculate a new applicant’s eventual chance. A page that does not identify its source and population has not supplied enough information to judge its claim.

Use the Condition Guide to Prepare Your Own Record

For an individual application, focus on the medically established conditions, their combined effects, expected duration and the ability to sustain work. The applicable listing is one route; SSA may also evaluate residual functional capacity and vocational factors. SSDI and SSI have separate nonmedical requirements. A historical low rate does not establish that you are ineligible, and a high rate does not guarantee approval.

Browse the condition directory for diagnosis-specific evidence and treatment-history guidance. Then use our application guide, records checklist or appeals guide to plan the next step.

Official Sources

• SSA DI Annual Statistical Report: Latest Edition^[1]
• SSA DI 2024: Application Outcomes and Table 61^[2]
• SSA DI 2024: Diagnostic Distribution of Awards^[3]
• SSA SSI Annual Statistical Report: Latest Edition^[4]
• SSA SSI 2025: Application Outcomes^[5]
• SSA Working Paper 113: 2009 Diagnosis Study, Table 3^[6]
• SSA 2012: Initial Determinations by Diagnosis^[7]
• SSA 2013: DI Worker Outcomes by Diagnosis^[8]
• SSA: Disability Evaluation and Program Requirements^[9]

General educational information. See how our guides are prepared.

Official Sources and References

These SSA.gov links support the explanations above. Official applications, account services, and agency forms are completed through SSA.

1. SSA DI Annual Statistical Report: Latest Edition — SSA.gov
2. SSA DI 2024: Application Outcomes and Table 61 — SSA.gov
3. SSA DI 2024: Diagnostic Distribution of Awards — SSA.gov
4. SSA SSI Annual Statistical Report: Latest Edition — SSA.gov
5. SSA SSI 2025: Application Outcomes — SSA.gov
6. SSA Working Paper 113: 2009 Diagnosis Study, Table 3 — SSA.gov
7. SSA 2012: Initial Determinations by Diagnosis — SSA.gov
8. SSA 2013: DI Worker Outcomes by Diagnosis — SSA.gov
9. SSA: Disability Evaluation and Program Requirements — SSA.gov