How many people have Agoraphobia?
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) states that about 5 percent of Americans ages 18-54 have Agoraphobic symptoms in any given year. That’s 15,221,312 people exactly as of the time this article was written! And that doesn’t include Americans over the age of 54. Of course, symptoms are not the same as diagnosable Agoraphobia; the NIMH counts diagnosable Agoraphobics at 3.2 million. That’s still a lot of people. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Agoraphobia as men. Research so far has not provided a single clear explanation for this gender difference. Some speculate that there are social-cultural factors at play, such as women are more likely to seek help than men, and women’s greater willingness to express emotions than men.
