Epidemiology
The rate of SLE varies considerably between countries, ethnicity, gender, and changes over time. In the United States the prevalence of SLE is estimated to be about 53 per 100,000, translating to about 159,000 out of 300 million people in the US being affected. In Northern Europe the rate is about 40 per 100,000 people. SLE occurs more frequently and with greater severity among those of non-European descent. That rate has been found to be as high as 159 per 100,000 among those of Afro-Caribbean descent.
SLE, like many autoimmune diseases, affects females more frequently than males, at a rate of almost 9 to 1.
The incidence of SLE in the United States increased from 1.0 in 1955 to 7.6 in 1974. Whether the increase is due to better diagnosis or to increasing frequency of the disease is unknown.
Read more about this topic: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus