10 Shocking Hyperhidrosis Statistics

Living with hyperhidrosis is difficult to say the least. Sweating can happen at any time and it can have a big impact on daily life, work, school, relationships — literally every aspect of daily life.

Whether you’ve been diagnosed with hyperhidrosis recently or you’ve been living with hyperhidrosis for your whole life, here are 10 statistics about hyperhidrosis that you might find surprising.

Hopefully these stats will leave you feeling a little more informed about this invisible medical condition.

10 hyperhidrosis-related statistics that might shock you

1. 5% of the population — or 385 million people — have hyperhidrosis.

Research by the International Hyperhidrosis Society (IHS) estimates that there are 385 million people globally living with hyperhidrosis. That’s a huge number of people, and it represents about 5% of the world’s population.

In reality, there may actually be even more people with hyperhidrosis than this estimate. Studies have shown different prevalence rates across countries and research indicates that race or ethnic background may have an impact on your risk of developing hyperhidrosis.

For instance, one study showed that the prevalence rate of hyperhidrosis in the US hovers somewhere between 2.8-4.8%. Another study measured the prevalence rate of hyperhidrosis in Japan at 13.95%, while yet another study found the prevalence rate of hyperhidrosis in China is 18.4%.

While it’s difficult to compare these studies apples-to-apples, one thing is clear: hyperhidrosis is not rare. People who are suffering with hyperhidrosis are certainly not alone, even though it may feel that way some days.

2. 60% of people with hyperhidrosis say their sweating negatively impacts their health.

Living with hyperhidrosis is no walk in the park. In fact, the IHS reports that 60% of hyperhidrosis sufferers say their condition negatively impacts their health. Another study found that 16.5% of people with underarm hyperhidrosis feel limited by their sweating at work and 33.5% felt unhappy.

With hyperhidrosis impacting almost every area of life, excessive sweating can also have an impact on mental health. Research has found that people with hyperhidrosis are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. Specifically, the risk of depression and anxiety for hyperhidrosis sufferers is 27% and 21% respectively, despite the risk for the general population being 10% and 7.5%. 

3. People with hyperhidrosis produce 4-5 times more sweat than normal.

Although people with hyperhidrosis sweat episodically rather than all the time, when they do sweat, people with hyperhidrosis produce 4 to 5 times the amount of sweat than what’s considered normal. This is according to research reported by the IHS.

This excessive level of sweating can lead to feelings of embarrassment and can result in difficulties accomplishing simple day-to-day tasks like using touchscreen devices, walking in flip flops, holding hands with comfort — and much more.

4. 27% of people with hyperhidrosis will never receive a diagnosis.

Despite how debilitating hyperhidrosis is, only 73% of people will receive an official diagnosis at some point in their life. That means more than one quarter of people with hyperhidrosis will never get the medical treatment they need and deserve to life a better quality of life. In some countries, this number is likely much higher.

The underdiagnosis of hyperhidrosis is due to both a lack of medical training on the condition and a hesitancy amongst sufferers to bring it up with their doctors. In fact, only 51% of Americans who experience excessive sweating will discuss it with their doctor — either because they don’t know it’s a medical condition or they’re unaware treatment options are available.

5. 62% of people with primary hyperhidrosis say they’ve been sweating excessively for as long as they can remember.

Hyperhidrosis is divided into two types: primary and secondary hyperhidrosis. Primary hyperhidrosis is a genetically-inherited medical condition you are born with, while secondary hyperhidrosis occurs as a result of an underlying medical condition or is caused by certain medications.

For people with primary hyperhidrosis, excessive sweating typically begins early in life and usually doesn’t go away — it’s a lifelong condition.

When 850 participants with hyperhidrosis were asked about the age of onset of their excessive sweating, 62% said they’ve been experiencing excessive sweating for as long as they could remember, 33% said it started when they hit puberty, and only 5% reported it began as an adult.

6. People with underarm hyperhidrosis typically sweat excessively in 3-4 other places on their body.

Everyone’s experience with hyperhidrosis is different in terms of severity, episodic frequency and the number of sites they experience sweating on their body. However, a study in 2016 found that the majority of people who have underarm hyperhidrosis also experience excessive sweating elsewhere on their body.

Specifically, researchers found that 81% of people with axillary hyperhidrosis also experience excessive sweating in 3 or more other sites of their body (such as hands, feet, face, groin, etc.), while 46% experience it in 4 or more sites.

7. People with hyperhidrosis have a 300% increased risk of skin infections.

Yes, you read that right. Data shows that people with hyperhidrosis have a 300% higher chance of developing a skin infection than those without hyperhidrosis.

Skin infections can include things like athlete’s foot, jock itch, warts, bacterial infections, skin breakdown due to maceration (wet, mushy skin) and more. The risk of eczema is also higher.

8. 65% of people with hyperhidrosis are bothered by it year round.

While people without hyperhidrosis might experience heavier sweating in the summer and less in the winter due to temperature changes, most people with hyperhidrosis don’t experience the luxury of seasonal breaks in the cooler months.

Research shows that 65% of people with hyperhidrosis experience excessive sweating year round with no changes based on seasons. That’s 365 days per year that most of us with hyperhidrosis have to live with excessive sweating.

9. Gender doesn’t change your chances of developing hyperhidrosis.

While we know the total estimated prevalence rate of hyperhidrosis, we don’t know how that breaks down by gender. However, there’s no evidence to date to show that gender has an impact on the risk of developing hyperhidrosis.

So that means that of the 385 million people globally with hyperhidrosis, we can probably assume that about 192.5 million of those people are women.

10. People with hyperhidrosis have a normal number of sweat glands.

Because people with hyperhidrosis sweat so much, you might think that they have more or larger sweat glands.

However, research shows that people with hyperhidrosis have the same number and size of sweat glands as the general population. This goes for both eccrine and apocrine sweat glands, with overactive eccrine sweat glands being the problem for people with hyperhidrosis.