OCD Statistics.
U.S. data on obsessive-compulsive disorder prevalence, age of onset, severity, and treatment response. Citations on every number.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is less common than the broad anxiety disorders but tends to be persistent and impairing. The National Institute of Mental Health reports past-year OCD near 1.2 percent of U.S. adults and lifetime prevalence near 2.3 percent. Onset often comes early, and a substantial share of past-year cases are rated serious. Treatment response is real but partial: many patients improve on first-line care without reaching full remission.
Key numbers at a glance
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The data in detail
Past-year OCD by sex
Past-year prevalence among U.S. adults, from the NCS-R estimates reported by NIMH.
| Group | Past-year prevalence |
|---|---|
| U.S. adults overall | 1.2% |
| Women | 1.8% |
| Men | 0.5% |
Source: NIMH, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (NCS-R).
Severity among past-year cases
How past-year OCD cases distribute across standardized severity ratings. Just over half are rated serious, among the highest shares of any anxiety-related condition.
| Severity rating | Share of past-year cases |
|---|---|
| Serious | 50.6% |
| Moderate | 34.8% |
| Mild | 14.6% |
Source: NIMH, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (NCS-R), Sheehan Disability Scale severity ratings.
Source by source
NIMH, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (NCS-R)
Reports past-year OCD near 1.2 percent and lifetime prevalence near 2.3 percent, with higher past-year rates in women than men and a high share of past-year cases rated serious.
Treatment-response literature
Meta-analyses and trials report that 40 to 60 percent of patients respond to a first SSRI trial, defined by a threshold reduction on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, while full remission is less common. Exposure and response prevention shows large effect sizes and is a first-line psychotherapy.
Subtype and onset research
Clinical research describes symptom dimensions such as contamination and washing, harm and checking, symmetry, and hoarding-related presentations, and documents that onset frequently occurs in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood.
What the data isn't
- ·Prevalence estimates come from diagnostic interviews fielded roughly two decades ago and have wide confidence intervals for a relatively uncommon condition.
- ·Subtype distributions vary by clinic and by how symptom dimensions are measured, so a single percentage split across contamination, harm, and other dimensions can be misleading.
- ·Hoarding is now classified separately from OCD in current diagnostic systems, which complicates older figures that grouped them together.
- ·Treatment-response percentages depend heavily on the response threshold chosen, the trial length, and whether the sample was treatment-naive or treatment-resistant.
Sources
How to cite
OCD statistics, AnxietyResearch.org, drawing on National Institute of Mental Health OCD prevalence estimates and peer-reviewed treatment-response literature. Accessed 2026-06-24. https://anxietyresearch.org/statistics/ocd-statistics
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