Eating Disorders Facts and Statistics

How Many People Suffer from Eating Disorders?

• Approximately 7 million girls and adult women currently have an eating disorder.
• Approximately 1 million boys and men currently suffer from an eating disorder.
• 10%-25% of all those battling anorexia will die as a direct result of the eating disorder.
• Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness (including major depression).
• Without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, the mortality rate falls to 2-3%
• Only 10% of those with eating disorders receive treatment.
• The recovery rate with treatment is about 50-60%.
• 85% of all people with eating disorders will have an affective disorder such as major depression and/or anxiety disorder.
• 3.7% of females will suffer from anorexia nervosa.
• 4.2% of females will suffer from bulimia nervosa.
• Up to 19% of college aged women in America are bulimic.

Obesity: A Growing Problem

• 61% of American adults are either overweight or obese.
• One out of every five US adults is classified as obese (BMI of 30 or greater).
• Between 1960 and 1994, overweight increased from 30.5 to 32% among adults ages 20-74 and obesity increased from 12.8 to 22.5%.

Body Image and Dieting

• In 1964, a Louis Harris poll in 1964 indicated that only 15% of adults were dieting.
• In 1996, 80% of American women were dissatisfied with their appearance.
• Today, roughly 25 million men and 43 million women are dieting to lose weight. Another 21 million men and 26 million women are dieting to maintain weight.
• In total, there are nearly 116 million adults dieting at any given time — representing about 55% of the total adult population.
• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus in the mid-90s had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted "often" or "always."
• 35% of "normal dieters" progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders.
• Time magazine reported that as many as 80% of fourth grade girls had already been on a diet.
• 1991 research revealed that 42% of 1st- to 3rd-grade girls wanted to be thinner and that 81% of ten year olds were afraid of being fat.