Prevalence describes how widespread a condition is. For ALS, it means the number of people currently living with the disease compared to the overall population. This measure can apply globally or be limited to a specific region or demographic group, such as people of a certain age, sex, or other characteristic.
Incidence rate describes the probability of someone being diagnosed with ALS in a given period of time. Often, incidence rate is measured as the number of new cases per 100,000 person-years, i.e. the number of people in a group of 100,000 that will get the disease within a given year.
Mortality rate describes the rate at which people living with ALS are passing away. The mortality rate for ALS closely follows the incidence rate, as most people with ALS will pass away as a result of the disease itself, before another ailment or an accident causes death instead.
According to a 2019 study conducted by the Department of Neurology, Seoul Hospital Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, there are approximately 268,673 people living with ALS worldwide.
According to MND Queensland, ❝more than 2,000 people have MND in Australia of whom 60% are male and 40% are female❞.
According to the ALS Society of Canada, there are approximately 4,000 individuals living with ALS in Canada at any given time. Each year, roughly 1,000 individuals are newly diagnosed with ALS, and 1,000 individuals pass away from the disease.
According to the government of Japan, there were 9,768 recipients of medical expenses associated with ALS in 2024.
According to the government of Mexico, there are approximately 6,000 individuals living with ALS in Mexico at any given time.
According to the UK MND Clinical Studies Group, ❝MND affects about 5,000 people in the UK at any one time, but the true figure is not known as there is no single source of information about who is affected❞.
A 2018 analysis of The National ALS Registry found ❝a current stabilization of ALS prevalent cases at around 30,000 per year❞.