How rare is hemophilia?
One out of 8,000 newborn baby boys is born with hemophilia. So about one in 8,000 male
births will be a boy with hemophilia. Females also have hemophilia although
it is far less frequent than in males.
A Rare Disorder
| Disease |
Description |
Occurrence in General Population |
| Cystic fibrosis |
Lungs clog with mucus |
1 in 2,500 |
| Hemophilia |
Blood fails to clot properly |
1 in 16,000 (1 in 8,000 male births) |
| Alzheimer's |
Degenerative disease of the central nervous system |
1 in 63 |
| Diabetes |
Failure to break down sugar |
1 in 52 |
| Down syndrome |
Extra chromosome causes developmental delays |
>1 in 1,00 |
How many people have hemophilia in the United States? About 17,000. That may seem like a
lot of you. But out of a total population of over 250 million, this
number represents much, much less than 1% of the population. You are
more likely to meet a person with Down syndrome, epilepsy, diabetes
or cystic fibrosis than someone with hemophilia.
Adapted from Tell Them the Facts! By Laureen A. Kelley, 1995
