Prevalence and incidence
Home ❯ Worldwide prevalence

Worldwide prevalence

What is worldwide prevalence of bipolar disorder?

Prevalence quantifies the proportion of individuals in a population who have a disease during a specific time period, while incidence refers to the number of new cases of disease that develop in a population during a specific time period. In disorders of short duration, incidence and prevalence rates may be similar, however with disorders of long duration such as with bipolar disorder there can be variation between the two. Point prevalence is the proportion of individuals who manifest a disorder at a given point in time, period measures the proportion of individuals who manifest a disorder during a specified period (e.g. one year), lifetime is the proportion of individuals in the population who have ever manifested a disorder who are alive on a given day and lifetime morbid risk also includes those deceased at the time of the assessment.

What is the evidence on worldwide prevalence of bipolar disorder?

Moderate to high quality evidence suggests the lifetime worldwide prevalence of bipolar disorder is around 1%, and the one-year prevalence is around 0.5%. Rates were higher for bipolar I disorder than for bipolar II disorder.

October 2021

Image: ©tai111 – Fotolia – stock.adobe.com

Last updated at: 4:34 pm, 21st April 2022
To view documentation related to this topic download the files below
Fact Sheet Technical Commentary
Tags:  Worldwide prevalence

NeuRA Libraries

Title Colour Legend:
Green - Topic summary is available.
Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.