Prevalence of myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome

The prevalence of myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome is estimated at 17-24 million worldwide. In 2015, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report from the United States National Academy of Sciences estimated there were between 836,000 and 2.5 million ME/CFS patients in the U.S. A 2018 study based on insurance claims gave "a rough estimate for the number of patients who may be diagnosed with ME or CFS in the U.S." as between 1.7 million and 3.38 million. Via a machine learning model, the same study predicted the prevalence of ME in the U.S. as roughly 2.8 million (857 out of every 100,000 people).

The IOM Report estimated that between 84% and 91% of patients are not diagnosed.

Notable studies

 * 2011, CFS Prevalence and Risk Factors Over Time (Full Text)
 * 2015, Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Redefining an Illness (Full Text)
 * 2018, Prevalence and incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in Europe-the Euro-epiME study from the European network EUROMENE: a protocol for a systematic review. (Full text)
 * 2018, Estimating Prevalence, Demographics, and Costs of ME/CFS Using Large Scale Medical Claims Data and Machine Learning (Full text)