COPD Trends Brief: Prevalence
View chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and COPD prevalence (number of cases) trends and disparities by age, gender, and race/ethnicity, overlapping diagnoses, underdiagnosis, and state.Historically, the number of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was based on how many answered yes to having been diagnosed with either chronic bronchitis or emphysema, the two primary components of COPD. Trends and demographic differences for these two diseases are examined before moving on to recent changes in COPD questions and resulting statistics.
Chronic Bronchitis
- In 2018, 9.0 million adults, or 3.6% of those ages 18 or older, had chronic bronchitis.
- Rates were greater among:
- Non-Hispanic white individuals compared to other racial and ethnic groups
- Women compared to men
- Those ages 65 and older compared to younger age groups
- From 1999 to 2018, chronic bronchitis rates decreased at an average of 1.5 percentage points per year.
Emphysema
- In 2018, 2.0 million adults, or 1.6% of those ages 18 or older, had emphysema.
- Rates were greater among:
- Non-Hispanic white individuals compared to other racial and ethnic groups
- Men compared to women
- Those ages 65 and older compared to younger age groups
- Historically, emphysema has been more common among men than women. However, rates converged over the last two decades as the rate among men decreased and the rate among females increased.
Changes to Questions
In 2014, a third question was added, which asked if one had ever been diagnosed with COPD. This may reflect the increased use of COPD as a diagnosis on its own, with no specification of chronic bronchitis or emphysema. In 2019, the three questions were combined into one asking how many people had ever been diagnosed with COPD, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema.
- In 2022, 11.7 million people, or 4.6% of adults, reported a diagnosis of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema.
- Rates were greater among:
- Non-Hispanic white individuals compared to other racial and ethnic groups
- Women compared to men
- Those ages 65 and older compared to younger age groups
- COPD rates from 2014 to 2018 were flat on average year to year.
- COPD rates from 2019 to 2022 were also flat on average year to year.
- The large decline in both rates and counts from 2018 to 2019 is presumably due to the change in question format.
- Neither the elevated COPD rates or counts in 2020 were significantly different than in 2019 or 2021.
- During 2007-2010, around 8.5 million adults had been diagnosed with COPD, but this may be an underdiagnosis as more than 18 million had evidence of impaired lung function consistent with COPD.