Based on U.S. population studies cited by the ALS Association, a little over 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. (That's 15 new cases a day.) As many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.
According to the ALS CARE Database, 60% of the people with ALS in the Database are men and 93% of patients in the Database are Caucasian.
Most people who develop ALS are between the ages of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the time of diagnosis.
Studies of risk factors, according to the ALS Association, are so far inconclusive. However, their database shows that Caucasians have the lion's share of ALS in the US. Another source says that 10% of ALS cases are genetic in origin. You can click here to read that statistic.
Please read our perspective on Race as a risk factor for more information on this important topic.
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