Key Chronic Pain Statistics and Facts

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Due to the vast number of people who have a form of chronic pain, it is inevitable that it has implications on the economy.  Chronic pain is a universal issue.

• The cost of chronic pain in the U.S. is estimated to be $635 billion a year.  (A combination of healthcare costs and losses associated with absenteeism.) 

• Pain affects more people in the U.S. than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined.

• 126 million, or 55% of all adults, experienced pain in the previous three months.

• 4 million U.S. adults report “a lot of pain” 

• 3 million U.S. adults suffer from daily pain. 

• Various reports list that over 50 million, but up to 100 million, U.S. adults have chronic pain conditions, an estimate that does not include acute pain conditions or children in pain. 

• More than one-quarter of adults (26%) age 20 years and over – or an estimated 76.5 million people – report that they have had a problem with pain of any sort that persisted for more than 24 hours in duration.

• More than 8 in 10 patients with chronic pain are affected by severe depression.

• 1 in 4 people with chronic pain have been diagnosed with clinical insomnia.

• Between 20% and 35% of children and adolescents experience chronic pain globally.

• At least 10% of the world’s population is affected by chronic pain.

• Chronic pain isn’t just an American epidemic; over 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain.

Data on chronic pain stresses the need for increased use of multimodal, multidisciplinary interventions that treat the patient as a whole.  This allows us to address the impact physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  This can change the course of pain and improve outcomes.  

[Information from the American Academy of Pain Medicine, 

National Institutes and Health, American Chiropractic Association, and American Society of Addiction Medicine provide the above referenced statistics.]