Personality disorder statistics worldwide

Updated October 2026

Personality disorders are common. The key figures below come from a worldwide review in The Lancet Psychiatry ¹, the World Mental Health surveys ², a United States national survey ³ and a Cochrane review of psychological therapies ⁴. Population-representative studies choose their participants to reflect a whole population. The Lancet Psychiatry review adjusted its figures for age, using a standard mid-age of forty-three.

A personality disorder is a long-standing pattern of thinking, feeling and relating to others that causes distress or gets in the way of work, relationships or daily life. The patterns usually show by early adult life. They are not a matter of character or blame, and many people improve over time, especially with the right help.

Diagnostic manuals group personality disorders in different ways. DSM-IV and DSM-5 are the earlier and current editions of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual. Both use three clusters, under the manual's own labels: odd or eccentric (cluster A), dramatic or emotional (cluster B, which includes borderline and narcissistic personality disorder) and anxious or fearful (cluster C). ICD-11, the World Health Organization's classification, rates a single personality disorder by severity instead.

Counting personality disorders is hard. Surveys use screening questions or structured interviews, and the results depend heavily on the method. An effect size, reported here as a standardised mean difference, shows how big a change or a difference is, on a common scale across studies. The further it is from zero, the bigger the change. A meta-analysis, or pooled estimate, combines the results of many studies into one figure.

Getting help

If something on this page reflects what you are going through, you do not have to manage it alone. Our guide to finding the right therapist explains how to choose someone qualified, and the TherapyRoute directory lists therapists in many countries.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, our list of helplines and crisis lines worldwide gives free services by country. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

How common personality disorders are

This page uses three sets of worldwide figures. Two reviews pooled community studies from many countries: one in The British Journal of Psychiatry and a newer one in The Lancet Psychiatry. The newer one used only population-representative studies and standardised its figures for age, which is one reason its figures sit below the older review's. The World Mental Health surveys asked the same screening questions in several countries and checked them against clinical interviews ². Compare figures within one source rather than across sources.

The three clusters

Clusters A and C were more common than cluster B in a review in The British Journal of Psychiatry that pooled community studies ⁵. People often meet criteria in more than one cluster, so the cluster figures add up to more than the total.

Borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder involves intense and changeable emotions, an unstable sense of self, impulsive behaviour and turbulent relationships. In a large United States survey it was as common in men as in women, although women are more often seen in clinics.

• In the United States, 5.6% of men had had borderline personality disorder at some point in their lives, about as common as among women. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2004-2005 data) ³
• In the United States, 6.2% of women had had borderline personality disorder at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2004-2005 data) ³

Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder is a clinical diagnosis, not an everyday insult. It describes a lasting pattern of grandiosity (an inflated sense of one's own importance), a need for admiration and difficulty with empathy, often alongside fragile self-esteem. The figures below come from a structured survey interview, not from self-labelling.

• In the United States, 6.2% of adults had had narcissistic personality disorder, as diagnosed by survey interview, at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2004-2005 data) ⁶
• In the United States, 7.7% of men had had narcissistic personality disorder at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2004-2005 data) ⁶
• In the United States, 4.8% of women had had narcissistic personality disorder at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2004-2005 data) ⁶

Treatment and remission

Clinicians once thought personality disorders could not change. Long-term follow-up of people first treated in hospital shows that most of them saw their borderline personality disorder symptoms ease. Remission here means no longer meeting the diagnostic criteria. It is not the same as recovery, which the same study defined as remission plus good social and working life, and which fewer people reached. Psychological therapies are the main treatment. A Cochrane review found that psychotherapy reduced borderline personality disorder symptom severity compared with usual treatment ⁴. Its authors rated this result moderate quality, meaning further research could change it, and rated the evidence for most other outcomes low quality. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a talking therapy that teaches skills for managing intense emotions and relationships.

• A US study followed people with borderline personality disorder who were inpatients aged eighteen to thirty-five at one hospital when it began. Within sixteen years, an estimated 99% had a remission lasting two years or more. (published 2012, data year not stated) ⁷
• Within sixteen years, an estimated 78% of people with borderline personality disorder first seen as inpatients aged eighteen to thirty-five at one US hospital had a remission lasting eight years or more. (published 2012, data year not stated) ⁷
• Dialectical behaviour therapy reduced borderline personality disorder symptoms more than treatment as usual by the end of treatment, a moderate difference (standardised mean difference 0.60, low-quality evidence). The result pools people with borderline personality disorder in 3 trials (149 participants) comparing DBT with treatment as usual. (meta-analysis of trials, published 2020) ⁴
• Among people with a personality disorder in regions of Nigeria, 6.0% had received treatment for a mental disorder in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²
• Among people with a personality disorder in the United States, 37.3% had received treatment for a mental disorder in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²

Early death

People with a personality disorder die earlier on average than the general population. A recent global review in The Lancet Psychiatry pooled the mortality studies that exist. These are group averages, highest among people ill enough to be in hospital. They do not predict what will happen to any one person, and care for physical and mental health can change the picture.

• Pooling mortality studies, the review found that inpatients with a personality disorder died at about 4.7 times the rate expected in the general population. (meta-analysis of studies, published 2025) ¹
• For outpatients with a personality disorder, the pooled death rate was about 1.8 times the rate expected in the general population. (meta-analysis of studies, published 2025) ¹

National figures

These national and regional figures come from the World Mental Health surveys. Some covered urban areas or regions only, and each figure names its population.

• Among survey respondents in regions of Nigeria, an estimated 2.7% had a personality disorder. (survey, at one point in time, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²
• Among survey respondents in urban China, an estimated 4.1% had a personality disorder. (survey, at one point in time, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²
• Among survey respondents in urban Colombia, an estimated 7.9% had a personality disorder. (survey, at one point in time, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²
• Among married survey respondents in five Western European countries, an estimated 2.4% had a personality disorder. (survey, at one point in time, published 2009, fieldwork year not stated) ²

National figures side by side

These rows come from surveys that used different methods and covered different populations. Read each row with its label, and do not rank the countries.

How to read these figures

Personality disorder figures depend strongly on the method of measurement. Short screening questions and full clinical interviews give different results, and the authors of the British Journal of Psychiatry review of community studies ⁵ caution that its pooled figures vary a great deal between studies.

The United States figures for borderline and narcissistic personality disorder come from one large survey interview, so they are best read as one estimate from one survey, not a settled number.

The long-term remission figures come from people first treated in hospital in one country, so they describe a group with severe difficulties at the start.

A diagnosis describes a pattern, not a whole person. Many people who meet criteria at one point no longer do years later.

Personality difficulties respond to steady, long-term help. Individual psychotherapy is at the centre of most treatments for borderline personality disorder, and trials have tested structured approaches such as dialectical behaviour therapy and mentalisation-based therapy. Mentalisation-based therapy helps people make sense of their own and others' feelings and intentions. Our guides to borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder explain each condition in more depth.

If long-standing patterns are causing you or people close to you distress, a psychologist or psychiatrist can assess what is happening and help plan care. Our guide on how to find the right therapist explains what to look for. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and suicide hotlines worldwide.

Cite this page: TherapyRoute. Personality disorder statistics worldwide. https://www.therapyroute.com/article/personality-disorder-statistics-worldwide-by-therapyroute. Last updated 28 October 2026.

References

1. [1] The global epidemiology of personality disorder: a systematic review and meta-regression. The Lancet Psychiatry (Shadid et al.), 2025 europepmc.org.
2. [2] DSM-IV personality disorders in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. The British Journal of Psychiatry (Huang et al.), 2009 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
3. [3] Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder: results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Grant et al.), 2008 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
4. [4] Psychological therapies for people with borderline personality disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Storebø OJ, Stoffers-Winterling JM, Völlm BA, et al.), 2020 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
5. [5] The prevalence of personality disorders in the community: a global systematic review and meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry (Winsper et al.), 2020 europepmc.org.
6. [6] Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV narcissistic personality disorder: results from the wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Stinson et al.), 2008 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
7. [7] Attainment and stability of sustained symptomatic remission and recovery among patients with borderline personality disorder and axis II comparison subjects: a 16-year prospective follow-up study. American Journal of Psychiatry (Zanarini et al.), 2012 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.