Statistics

The following statistics are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Arthritis Foundation:

• Nearly 46 million people in the US have some form of arthritis or chronic joint symptoms.

• Rheumatic diseases are the leading cause of disability among persons age 65 and older.
  
  
• Approximately 21 million adults in the United States have the most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis, also called degenerative joint disease. Most persons over the age of 65 are affected with osteoarthritis in at least one joint, making this condition a leading cause of disability in the US.
  
  
• Rheumatoid arthritis, the most crippling form of arthritis, affects approximately 2.1 million Americans and two to three times more women than men. Further, the average onset for rheumatoid arthritis is between the ages of 20 and 45 years old.
  
  
• Nine out of 10 people who have lupus are women, and lupus is three times more common in African-American women than Caucasian women.
  
  
• Women are eight to 10 times more likely to have fibromyalgia than men.

Click here to view the
Online Resources page of this Web.