About 27 million people in the United States currently have asthma, representing 8.2% of the total population. That figure, from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, includes both adults and children who have been diagnosed with asthma and still actively have the condition.
Adults vs. Children
Asthma affects adults at a higher rate than children. Among adults 18 and older, 8.6% currently have asthma. For children under 18, the rate is 6.5%, which translates to roughly 4.7 million kids. This gap is partly because asthma can develop at any point in life, not just childhood. While many people associate asthma with kids wheezing on the playground, adult-onset asthma is common and often triggered by workplace exposures, hormonal changes, or respiratory infections.
In children, asthma is one of the leading causes of missed school days. Nationally, kids with asthma miss a combined 5.2 million school days per year. For adults, the toll shows up at work: 8.7 million workdays are lost annually to asthma symptoms or medical appointments.
Who Is Most Affected
Asthma does not hit every group equally. Black adults have the highest prevalence at 10.9%, compared to 9.1% for white adults and 8.0% for Hispanic adults. These disparities reflect a mix of environmental, economic, and healthcare access factors. People living in neighborhoods with higher air pollution, older housing with mold or pest problems, and limited access to specialists tend to have both higher rates of asthma and worse outcomes when they do have it.
Women are also more likely than men to have asthma in adulthood. Before puberty, boys actually have higher rates, but the pattern flips in the teenage years and stays that way through the rest of life. Hormonal differences and airway size are thought to play a role in this shift.
Where Rates Are Highest
Asthma prevalence varies significantly by state. More than two dozen states and territories have adult asthma rates above 9.9%, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico. States in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest and South tend to cluster at the top. Hawaii, California, Texas, and several plains states like Nebraska and the Dakotas fall on the lower end, with rates below 8.8%.
These geographic differences tie into a range of local factors: climate and pollen counts, air quality, smoking rates, poverty levels, and the prevalence of obesity, which is itself a risk factor for developing asthma.
Deaths and Serious Outcomes
Asthma is a manageable condition for most people, but it still kills. In 2021, asthma was the underlying cause of 3,517 deaths in the U.S., a rate of about 10.6 per million people. Most asthma deaths are considered preventable with proper medication use and access to care. The majority occur in adults, particularly older adults, and disproportionately affect Black Americans.
Fatal asthma attacks often follow a pattern of worsening symptoms over days or weeks, not a single sudden event. People who skip controller medications, rely too heavily on rescue inhalers, or have had previous hospitalizations for asthma are at the highest risk.
The Financial Cost
Asthma carries an economic burden of roughly $82 billion per year in the United States. That figure includes direct medical expenses, lost productivity from missed work and school, and the cost of premature deaths. Mortality alone accounts for an estimated $29 billion of that total.
For an individual, the average annual medical cost of asthma is about $3,266. Prescription medications make up the largest share at $1,830 per year, followed by office visits at $640 and hospitalizations at $529. Emergency department visits account for a smaller portion at $105 per person, though ER costs add up quickly across millions of patients. These figures highlight how much of asthma’s cost comes from ongoing daily management rather than acute crises.
What These Numbers Mean in Context
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the country, on par with diabetes in terms of how many people it touches. The 27 million figure counts only people with “current” asthma, meaning they were diagnosed at some point and still have it. Millions more had asthma as children and no longer experience symptoms, and an unknown number of people have undiagnosed asthma, particularly adults who dismiss chronic coughing or mild shortness of breath as normal.
Prevalence has remained relatively stable over the past decade after decades of steady increases. The condition is not becoming rarer, but outcomes have generally improved as inhaler technology and treatment guidelines have advanced. The persistent gap between racial and economic groups, however, remains one of the clearest examples of health inequality in the U.S.