How rare is hemophilia?
One out of 8,000 newborn baby boys is born with hemophilia. So about one in 8,000 male births will be a boy with hemophilia. Females also have hemophilia although it is far less frequent than in males.
A Rare Disorder
| Disease | Description | Occurrence in General Population |
| Cystic fibrosis | Lungs clog with mucus | 1 in 2,500 |
| Hemophilia | Blood fails to clot properly | 1 in 16,000 (1 in 8,000 male births) |
| Alzheimer's | Degenerative disease of the central nervous system | 1 in 63 |
| Diabetes | Failure to break down sugar | 1 in 52 |
| Down syndrome | Extra chromosome causes developmental delays | >1 in 1,000 |
How many people have hemophilia in the United States? About 17,000. That may seem like a lot of you. But out of a total population of over 250 million, this number represents much, much less than 1% of the population. You are more likely to meet a person with Down syndrome, epilepsy, diabetes or cystic fibrosis than someone with hemophilia.
Adapted from Tell Them the Facts! By Laureen A. Kelley, 1995
