Asthma Statistics

American Lung Association

1. Approximately 34.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma by a health professional during their lifetime.
2. Prescription drugs represented the largest single direct medical expenditure related to asthma, over $6 billion.
3. The annual economic cost of asthma is $19.7 billion. Direct costs make up $14.7 billion of that total, and indirect costs such as lost productivity add another $5 billion.
4. Asthma was responsible for 3,384 deaths in the United States in 2005.
5. An average of one out of every 10 school-aged child has asthma.

World Health Organization

1. An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with 250,000 annual deaths attributed to the disease.
2. About 70% of asthmatics also have allergies.
3. It is estimated that the number of people with asthma will grow by more than 100 million by 2025.

CDC National Center
for Health Statistics

1. Asthma accounts for approximately 500,000 hospitalizations each year.
2. 13 million school days are missed each year due to asthma.
3. Asthma accounts for about 10.1 million missed work days for adults annually.
4. Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15.
5. Nine million U.S. children under 18 have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lifetime.
6. Asthma accounts for 217,000 emergency room visits and 10.5 million physician office visits every year.
7. The number of people with asthma continues to grow. One in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the population) had asthma in 2009, compared with 1 in 14 (about 20 million, or 7%) in 2001.

Results from the first national survey of lead and allergens in housing

1. In a survey of U.S. homes, approximately one-quarter had levels of dust mite allergens present in a bed at a level high enough to trigger asthma symptoms.