Pulmonology statistics show how respiratory disease affects everyday health, emergency care, hospital use, and mortality in the United States. The figures below cover asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and lung cancer, with measurement years kept explicit because the datasets do not all describe the same period.
Contents
- Asthma prevalence in the United States
- Asthma by age and life stage
- Asthma attacks, emergency care, and hospital stays
- Asthma mortality patterns
- Asthma across states and territories
- COPD and pneumonia statistics
- Lung cancer diagnosis and survival
Asthma prevalence in the United States
The CDC Most Recent Asthma Data reported 26,799,588 people with current asthma in the United States in 2022, equal to 8.2% of the population. The same source counted 4,529,232 children with current asthma, or 6.2% of children, and 22,270,356 adults with current asthma, or 8.7% of adults.
These totals describe current asthma, while later measures describe attacks or health-care encounters. They should therefore be read as related but different indicators rather than interchangeable counts.
The CDC FastStats Asthma figures report that, in 2024, 8.6% of U.S. adults age 18 and older currently had asthma. In the same year, 6.5% of children younger than 18 currently had asthma. The 2024 adult and child percentages are from a later measurement period than the 2022 population counts above.
Asthma by age and life stage
The 2022 CDC age breakdown shows that current asthma prevalence varied across childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Children ages 0–4 had a prevalence of 2.7%, representing 498,520 children. Among children ages 5–11, prevalence was 7.0%, or 1,991,797 children. For ages 5–14, the prevalence was also 7.0%, representing 2,875,120 people.
Among school-age children ages 5–17, current asthma prevalence was 7.4%, or 4,030,712 children. Young teens ages 12–14 had a prevalence of 6.9%, representing 883,323 children. For ages 12–17, prevalence was 7.9%, or 2,038,915 people, while teenagers ages 15–17 had a prevalence of 8.9%, or 1,155,592 people.
The broader age ranges show additional variation. People ages 15–19 had a current asthma prevalence of 9.7%, representing 2,078,824 people. Among adolescents ages 11–21, prevalence was 8.8%, or 4,085,146 people. The highest listed prevalence in these age-group figures was among people ages 20–24: 12.0%, representing 2,499,279 people. Each age range has its own denominator, so the percentages should not be added together.
Asthma attacks, emergency care, and hospital stays
In 2023, 11,750,000 people with current asthma had an asthma attack, equal to 42.3% of people with current asthma. Children accounted for 2,264,000 of those people, or 47.1% of children with current asthma. Adults accounted for 9,486,000 people, or 41.2% of adults with current asthma.
The CDC Most Recent Asthma Data recorded 986,453 asthma-related emergency department visits in 2020, with a crude rate of 29.8 visits per 10,000 people. That year also included 94,560 asthma-related hospital inpatient stays, with a crude rate of 2.9 per 10,000 people.
The age-specific 2020 figures were as follows:
| Group | Emergency department visits | ED rate | Inpatient stays | Inpatient rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children | 270,330 | 36.4 per 10,000 | 27,055 | 3.6 per 10,000 |
| Adults | 716,117 | 27.8 per 10,000 | 67,505 | 2.6 per 10,000 |
The 2024 CDC FastStats Asthma figures describe a later period and a different reporting measure: physicians recorded 4.9 million annual office visits for asthma, and asthma accounted for 6.3% of office-based physician visits with asthma indicated in the medical record. There were also 1.4 million emergency department visits with asthma as the primary diagnosis in 2024. These figures should not be directly combined with the 2020 asthma-related encounter counts because the years and definitions differ.
Asthma mortality patterns
The CDC Most Recent Asthma Data recorded 3,602 asthma deaths in the United States in 2022, with a mortality rate of 10.8 deaths per million people. Children under 18 accounted for 164 deaths, at a rate of 2.3 per million children. Adults age 18 and older accounted for 3,438 deaths, at a rate of 13.2 per million adults.
Mortality increased across the listed older age groups. There were 28 deaths among ages 0–4, at 1.5 per million, and 68 deaths among ages 5–11, at 2.4 per million. Ages 12–17 also had 68 deaths, at 2.6 per million. Ages 18–24 had 140 deaths, at 4.5 per million, while ages 25–34 had 322 deaths, at 7.1 per million.
Among people ages 35–64, there were 1,426 asthma deaths, at 11.3 per million. People age 65 and older accounted for 1,550 deaths, at 26.8 per million. The age-specific rates provide context for the counts because the population sizes of the age groups differ.
The 2022 sex figures were 1,415 asthma deaths among males, at 8.6 per million, and 2,187 among females, at 13.0 per million. By race and ethnicity, non-Hispanic White people accounted for 1,972 deaths, at 10.1 per million, while non-Hispanic Black people accounted for 1,012 deaths, at 24.1 per million.
Asthma across states and territories
The 2022 CDC state and territory estimates show substantial geographic variation in current asthma prevalence. The listed percentages ranged from 7.1% in Mississippi to 13.9% in West Virginia among states, while Puerto Rico was reported at 14.1%.
Selected state estimates illustrate both population size and prevalence:
| State or territory | People with current asthma | Share of population |
|---|---|---|
| California | 2,688,439 | 8.8% |
| Texas | 1,966,297 | 8.5% |
| Florida | 1,559,429 | 8.5% |
| New York | 1,553,999 | 9.9% |
| Ohio | 1,007,049 | 11.0% |
| West Virginia | 196,326 | 13.9% |
| Puerto Rico | 381,849 | 14.1% |
Other 2022 estimates included Alabama at 350,749 people and 8.8%; Alaska at 59,838 and 10.8%; Arizona at 601,018 and 10.3%; Arkansas at 231,412 and 9.9%; Colorado at 524,666 and 11.3%; Connecticut at 316,879 and 10.9%; Delaware at 90,644 and 11.0%; and the District of Columbia at 59,577 and 10.6%.
The CDC also reported Georgia at 801,375 people and 9.4%; Hawaii at 113,386 and 9.8%; Idaho at 157,515 and 10.5%; Illinois at 937,468 and 9.5%; Indiana at 605,345 and 11.5%; Iowa at 221,751 and 8.9%; Kansas at 221,805 and 9.9%; Louisiana at 373,621 and 10.6%; and Maine at 146,401 and 12.9%.
Further estimates were Maryland, 525,607 and 10.8%; Massachusetts, 672,211 and 11.9%; Michigan, 869,040 and 11.0%; Minnesota, 436,181 and 9.8%; Missouri, 476,023 and 9.9%; Montana, 104,678 and 11.7%; Nebraska, 127,138 and 8.5%; Nevada, 219,839 and 8.8%; New Hampshire, 134,973 and 11.8%; New Jersey, 627,531 and 8.6%; New Mexico, 160,815 and 9.7%; and North Carolina, 856,919 and 10.0%.
The remaining listed states included North Dakota at 61,046 people and 10.1%; Oklahoma at 348,844 and 11.3%; Oregon at 399,253 and 11.8%; Rhode Island at 108,515 and 12.2%; South Carolina at 370,455 and 8.8%; South Dakota at 67,878 and 9.7%; Tennessee at 614,808 and 11.0%; Utah at 272,035 and 11.0%; Vermont at 59,448 and 11.2%; Virginia at 697,841 and 10.2%; Washington at 659,914 and 10.7%; Wisconsin at 504,682 and 10.9%; and Wyoming at 44,619 and 10.0%.
Territory estimates were 6,900 people in Guam, or 6.2%; 3,932 in the Virgin Islands, or 5.7%; and 381,849 in Puerto Rico, or 14.1%. These are population estimates for the named jurisdictions, not clinical forecasts.
COPD and pneumonia statistics
The CDC COPD indicator reported that 6.4% of U.S. adults had been diagnosed with COPD in 2024, representing more than 15 million Americans. Among people diagnosed with COPD in 2021, 34.5% reported current smoking. The same CDC indicator states that nearly 80% of COPD deaths are attributable to smoking. The 2021 smoking measure and the 2024 diagnosis measure refer to different years.
The CDC FastStats Pneumonia figures recorded 41,627 pneumonia deaths in the United States in 2024, equal to 12.2 deaths per 100,000 population. In that year, 1.2 million emergency department visits had pneumonia as the primary diagnosis. Also in 2024, 25.1% of U.S. adults had ever received a pneumococcal vaccination.
Lung cancer diagnosis and survival
The CDC Lung Cancer Stat Bite reported 218,893 new lung cancers in the United States in 2022 and 131,584 people who died from lung cancer in 2023. Although the publication year shown for these figures was 2025, the measurements refer to 2022 incidence and 2023 deaths.
From 2018 to 2022, nearly half of lung cancers were diagnosed at a distant stage. More than one-fourth were diagnosed at a localized stage, and less than one-fourth were diagnosed at a regional stage. These stage categories describe diagnosis patterns across the 2018–2022 period, not a single-year snapshot.
Overall, 29% of lung cancer patients were alive five years later. Among people diagnosed with lung cancer from 2017 to 2021, 449,627 were still alive on January 1, 2022. The five-year survival figure and the January 1, 2022 survivor count use different measurement designs, so neither should be interpreted as a forecast for an individual patient.