Prevalence and Demographics
BPD affects around 2% of the adult population – that’s close to a million people living with a diagnosis of BPD. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t include those who are undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed), if we were able to include those people then that figure increases dramatically.
BPD is such a complex disorder it’s common for it to be misdiagnosed as other conditions – often bipolar and ADHD.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is generally diagnosed more frequently in women than in men. However, it’s important to note that this discrepancy may partly be due to differences in those seeking help (and diagnostic biases) rather than actual differences in prevalence between genders. Some studies suggest that the ratio of women to men diagnosed with BPD may be around 3:1 or even higher, but this figure can vary depending on the population studied and the diagnostic criteria used.