Nearly three million adults, and $24.5 billion a year

About 2.9 million US adults aged 18 and over reported having **active
epilepsy** during 2021–2022 — roughly 1% of all US adults. **About 456,000
children aged 17 and under** have it too.

What "active" means

The definition differs by age, and it is worth knowing:

Where the money goes

**In 2019, average annual health care spending for epilepsy and seizures came
to $24.5 billion.**

Seizures account for nearly four fifths of the total. That split is the
argument for treatment in a single figure: the expensive part is not managing
the condition, it is the events that happen when the condition is not
controlled — the emergency visits, the admissions, the injuries.

The part that undermines all of it

**Adults with epilepsy have a harder time getting health care compared to
adults without epilepsy.**

A condition whose costs are driven by uncontrolled seizures, in a population
that struggles to access the care that would control them. The published data
breaks prevalence down by **insurance coverage, employment status, education,
race and ethnicity** — and by whether people **have seen a neurologist or
specialist in the last year**, which is the variable that connects the two
halves of this page.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.