An estimated 28.8 million Americans will experience an eating disorder at some point in their lives, based on widely cited prevalence estimates. That translates to roughly 9% of the U.S. population. Among adolescents aged 13 to 18, the lifetime prevalence is about 2.7%, and one person in the U.S. dies as a direct consequence of an eating disorder every 52 minutes.
Overall Prevalence by Gender and Age
Eating disorders affect people of every age, gender, and background, but the numbers are not evenly distributed. Among teenagers, girls are more than twice as likely to develop an eating disorder as boys: 3.8% of adolescent females compared to 1.5% of males, according to data from the National Institute of Mental Health. Prevalence also climbs with age during the teen years, from 2.4% among 13- to 14-year-olds to 3.0% among 17- and 18-year-olds.
These figures almost certainly undercount the real total. Many people with eating disorders never receive a formal diagnosis, and large-scale surveys rely on participants accurately reporting symptoms they may not recognize or may feel ashamed to disclose. The true number of affected Americans is likely higher than any single study captures.
The Three Most Common Types
Most prevalence data focuses on the three disorders that have been studied the longest: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder is by far the most common, affecting more people than anorexia and bulimia combined. It involves recurring episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short period while feeling a loss of control, without the purging behaviors associated with bulimia.
Anorexia nervosa, characterized by severe food restriction and an intense fear of gaining weight, is less common but carries the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. Bulimia nervosa, which involves cycles of bingeing and purging, falls somewhere in between in terms of prevalence.
A newer diagnosis, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), is gaining recognition. Unlike anorexia, ARFID doesn’t involve body image distortion. Instead, people with ARFID avoid food based on its sensory qualities, a fear of choking or vomiting, or a general lack of interest in eating. Studies estimate that between 0.5% and 5% of children and adults have ARFID, though research is still limited.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Diagnosis
Eating disorders occur across all racial and ethnic groups, but Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous individuals are far less likely to be identified or referred for treatment. In one striking study, clinicians were shown identical case descriptions of disordered eating in white, Hispanic, and Black women. They flagged the white woman’s behavior as problematic 44% of the time and the Hispanic woman’s 41% of the time, but only 17% identified the Black woman’s behavior as a problem, even though the symptoms were exactly the same. Those clinicians were also less likely to recommend that the Black woman seek professional help.
Part of the issue is that about 73% of eating disorder treatment providers are white. This lack of diversity in the clinical workforce contributes to blind spots. Providers may not adequately understand how experiences of racial trauma, discrimination, and microaggressions can drive or worsen disordered eating in communities of color. The result is that many people in these communities go undiagnosed and untreated for years.
LGBTQ+ Youth Face Higher Risk
LGBTQ+ young people are broadly more vulnerable to mental health challenges, including eating disorders. Research consistently shows they are three to four times more likely to experience anxiety and depression than their heterosexual and cisgender peers, and these conditions frequently co-occur with disordered eating.
The actual eating disorder rates in LGBTQ+ youth, however, are more nuanced than some advocacy campaigns suggest. Data from the Growing Up Today Study found that about 8.2% of lesbian girls and 2.3% of gay males had disordered eating behavior. Other regional studies found clinical eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia to be “quite rare” among LGBTQ+ youth overall, with about 1% of sampled participants reporting them. The risk is real and elevated compared to the general population, but the scale varies depending on how eating disorders are defined and measured.
Most People Never Get Help
Perhaps the most concerning statistic isn’t how many people have eating disorders, but how few seek treatment. A Yale School of Medicine study found that only about half of people with a diagnosable eating disorder sought any form of help at all. The numbers were worst for anorexia: just 34.5% of adults with anorexia sought help, compared to 62.6% of those with bulimia and 49% of those with binge eating disorder.
Even among those who did reach out, fewer than 30% saw a counselor or psychologist, and fewer than 20% received medication for their symptoms. The reasons for this gap are complex. Shame and stigma play a major role, along with a widespread misunderstanding that eating disorders are a choice rather than a serious psychiatric condition. Many people, particularly those with binge eating disorder, don’t realize their relationship with food qualifies as a medical problem. Others face insurance barriers or live in areas without specialized providers.
The Human and Economic Toll
Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental health conditions. One person in the U.S. dies every 52 minutes as a direct result of an eating disorder, a figure from a 2020 Deloitte analysis commissioned by Harvard’s Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. That adds up to roughly 10,000 deaths per year.
The economic burden is enormous as well. The same Harvard and Deloitte collaboration produced the most comprehensive examination to date of eating disorders’ financial impact, documenting not just direct treatment costs but also the toll of informal caregiving, lost workplace productivity, and broader costs to society. The total runs into tens of billions of dollars annually when accounting for the reduced quality of life and lost wellbeing experienced by those affected and the people caring for them.