ADHD Rates by Country 2024

Worldwide, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects about 2.2% of people overall by 2017. This rate fluctuates between .1-8.1%. In Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East, the range is from .6-7.3%.

In Children and Adolescents

Not all countries have published data with ADHD for children younger than six years old. Some places do have records concerning this, however. The percentages equal 1.9% for Norway, 1.8% for Germany and 5.4% for Spain.

The World Health Organization (WHO), also surveyed 20 lower-middle to upper income countries. This revealed the U.S. as having the highest ADHD rate at 8.1% in children and adolescents. The three lowest are Iraq at .1%, Poland at .3% and Romania at .4%. Data from this study comes from as late as 2017.

ADHD Rates For Other Countries

European ADHD Gender Study

Another study, called the European ADORE study, took place over a period of 24 months. It includes research pulled from 10 EU countries ages 6-18 years. Out of 1478 children studied, boys with ADHD totaled 1222, which make up 84.3% of this group, and girls 231, which equals 15.7%.

Gender ratios indicated by countries included in the ADORE study measured 1:3 in females and 1:16 in males. Data reveals more diagnoses of ADHD in adult males than adult females in many locations. However, the ratio of males to females with ADHD has decreased with age.