information:highlighting, information:filtering, quality:correction, stylistic:style_transfer, quality:corruption
Epidemiology

Estimates of prevalence have considerable variation due to differences in analytical and surveying approach and the choice of diagnostic criteria. An estimated 384 million people aged 30 years or more had COPD in 2010, corresponding to a global prevalence of 12%. The disease affects men and women. The increase in the developing world between 1970 and the 2000s is believed to be related to increasing rates of smoking in this region, an increasing population and an aging population due to fewer deaths from other causes such as infectious diseases. Some developed countries have seen increased rates, some have remained stable and some have seen a decrease in COPD prevalence.

Around three million people die of COPD each year. In some countries, mortality has decreased in men but increased in women. This is most likely due to rates of smoking in women and men becoming more similar. A higher rate of COPD is found in those over 40 years and this increases greatly with advancing age with the highest rate found in those over 60 years. Sex differences in the anatomy of the respiratory system include smaller airway lumens and thicker airway walls in women, which contribute to a greater severity of COPD symptoms like dyspnea and frequency of COPD exacerbation.

In the UK, three million people are reported to be affected by COPD – two million of these being undiagnosed. On average, the number of COPD-related deaths between 2007 and 2016 was 28,600. The estimated number of deaths due to occupational exposure was estimated to be about 15% at around 4,000. In the United States in 2018, almost 15.7 million people had been diagnosed with COPD and it is estimated that millions more have not been diagnosed.

In 2011, there were approximately 730,000 hospitalizations in the United States for COPD. Globally, COPD in 2019 was the third-leading cause of death. In low-income countries, COPD does not appear in the Top 10 causes of death; in other income groups, it is in the Top 5.