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Life - Biology

Most Common Human Diseases

This list features the most common diseases afflicting humans based on the number of people affected worldwide in the most recent data years.

RANK	DISEASE	EXAMPLES	AFFECTED
1	Mental Illness	Schizophrenia, Learning Difficulties, Depression	970 million
2	Infectious Disease	Parasites, Fungi, Viruses	704 million
3	Diabetes	—	537 million
4	Atheromatous Disease	Heart Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease, Stroke	523 million
5	Musculoskeletal	Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Gout	494 million
6	Chronic Respiratory Diseases	Pulmonary Fibrosis, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease	454.6 million
7	Dementia	Alzheimer’s	55 million
8	Degenerative Diseases	Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Glaucoma, Thyroid,	50 million
9	Cancer	Prostate, Lung, Breast, Kidney, Skin	18.7 million
10	Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS)	—	—

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References

My HSN. (n.d.). What are the 10 most common diseases? Available at: https://www.myhsn.co.uk/top-tip/what-are-the-10-most-common-diseases/ (Accessed 1 December 2025). Kaptoge, S., et al. (2023). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global mortality, affecting over 523 million people globally. The Lancet EClinicalMedicine. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149291823003831 (Accessed 1 December 2025). World Cancer Research Fund. (n.d.). Worldwide cancer data. Available at: https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/worldwide-cancer-data/ (Accessed 1 December 2025). GBD 2023 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators. (2023). Global, regional, and national burden of diseases and injuries: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. The Lancet EClinicalMedicine.Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(23)00113-X/fulltext (Accessed 1 December 2025). Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Neurodegenerative diseases. Available at: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24976-neurodegenerative-diseases (Accessed 1 December 2025). Alzheimer's Disease International. (n.d.). Dementia statistics. Available at: https://www.alzint.org/about/dementia-facts-figures/dementia-statistics/ (Accessed 1 December 2025). International Diabetes Federation. (n.d.). Diabetes Atlas. Available at: https://diabetesatlas.org (Accessed 1 December 2025). McGowan, J., et al. (2023). The burden of chronic diseases in the 21st century. Advances in Chronic Disease Management. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065308X23000118 (Accessed 1 December 2025). World Health Organization. (2021). Mental disorders. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders (Accessed 1 December 2025). Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. (2020). Global and regional burden of other musculoskeletal disorders, 1990–2017. Available at: https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/library/global-regional-and-national-burden-other-musculoskeletal-disorders-1990 (Accessed 1 December 2025). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2023). World Drug Report 2023. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/unodc-world-drug-report-2023-enarruzh (Accessed 1 December 2025). Sahu, M. and Sahu, P. (2020). Leading causes of deaths in India: a review. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 9(6), pp.3067–3072. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7150259/ (Accessed 1 December 2025).

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