How Many People Die From Asthma Every Day
Asthma kills around 1,250 people a day worldwide, about 4 a day in the UK. Most deaths are preventable. The figures, who is at risk and the warning signs.
Picture a teenager on a cold January evening, walking home from a friend's house. She has had asthma since she was small, and it has been "fine" for years, so the brown preventer inhaler sits mostly unused in a drawer. She has been using her blue reliever a lot more than usual this winter, a few puffs here and there, but she has not really thought about it. Tonight her chest tightens and the blue inhaler does not seem to touch it.
Most asthma attacks end with a frightening hour and a trip to A&E. Some end much worse. And what makes asthma deaths so hard to accept is that experts believe the large majority of them could have been prevented.
The headline number
The World Health Organization estimates that asthma affected about 262 million people and caused around 455,000 deaths in 2019, the most recent year in its fact sheet. That works out to roughly 1,250 deaths every day, or close to one death every minute.
You can see how those deaths sit alongside every other cause on our live death counter, where around 170,000 people die every day from all causes.
| Time period | Asthma deaths (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Per year | 455,000 |
| Per month | 37,900 |
| Per week | 8,750 |
| Per day | 1,250 |
| Per hour | 52 |
| Per minute | 0.9 |
Asthma is part of a wider group of chronic respiratory diseases, which together kill around 4 million people a year. The biggest of those is COPD, which we covered in how many people die from COPD every day. You can see the whole group on our chronic respiratory disease page.
Asthma deaths in the UK and US
Asthma is extremely common in wealthy countries, but deaths are relatively rare there, because most people have access to inhalers and emergency care. Even so, the numbers are not small.
| Country | Asthma deaths per year | Deaths per day | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| World | about 455,000 | 1,250 | WHO, 2019 estimate |
| United Kingdom | about 1,465 | 4 | 2022, latest UK-wide figure widely cited |
| United States | 3,722 | 10 | CDC, 2024 |
In the UK, roughly four people die from asthma every day. The number has not fallen much in more than a decade: around 1,281 people died from asthma in 2014, and about 1,465 in 2022. England and Wales recorded more than 1,400 asthma deaths as long ago as 2018, the highest level in a decade at the time. For context, the UK has about 1,800 deaths a day from all causes, as we set out in how many people die in the UK every day.
In the US, the CDC's latest figures show 3,722 asthma deaths in 2024, a rate of 1.1 per 100,000 people. That has been broadly stable for several years. It is about 10 deaths a day, out of the roughly 8,500 Americans who die every day, as we covered in how many people die in the US every day.
Where asthma deaths happen
Asthma itself is found everywhere, but asthma deaths are concentrated in poorer countries. The WHO says more than 80% of asthma deaths happen in low and lower-middle income countries, where the disease is often undiagnosed and the medicines that control it are expensive or simply unavailable.
| Setting | What makes asthma more deadly |
|---|---|
| Low-income countries | Inhaled steroids unaffordable or out of stock; little access to emergency oxygen |
| Lower-middle income countries | Asthma often undiagnosed or mistaken for chest infections |
| Homes using wood, coal or dung for cooking | Smoke irritates and inflames the airways |
| Cities with heavy traffic | Air pollution triggers attacks and worsens control |
| High-income countries | Deaths mostly linked to poor routine control and delays seeking help |
Air pollution, both indoors and out, is a big part of that picture. We look at its total toll in how many people die from air pollution every day and on our air pollution page. Regional death patterns are on our Africa and Asia pages.
Who dies from asthma
Asthma is often thought of as a childhood condition, but most people who die from it are adults, and many are older adults.
| Group | What the data shows |
|---|---|
| Older adults | Most asthma deaths in the UK and US are in people over 65 |
| Women | Adult women have higher asthma death rates than men in the UK and US |
| Children and young people | Deaths are rarer, but the UK has one of the worst records for child asthma deaths in Europe |
| People with poorly controlled asthma | Heavy reliance on reliever inhalers is a major warning sign |
| People in deprived areas | Higher exposure to damp, mould, smoke and pollution, and less access to care |
An analysis of England and Wales data found that asthma deaths among people aged 80 and over rose by around 81% between 2001 and 2017, even as deaths in younger age groups fell. In the US, the CDC's figures show a similar picture, with the highest death rates among older adults and among women. You can see how death rates change with age on our 70 to 84 and 85 and over pages.
The UK's wake-up call
In 2014, the Royal College of Physicians published the National Review of Asthma Deaths, the first UK-wide investigation of its kind. It looked in detail at asthma deaths over a single year and found that around two-thirds were preventable.
Its findings still shape asthma care today:
| Finding | Why it mattered |
|---|---|
| Many deaths were preventable | Better routine care could have changed the outcome |
| Nearly half died without seeking or receiving medical help during the final attack | Warning signs were missed or ignored |
| Many had been prescribed more than 12 reliever inhalers in the year before death | A clear sign their asthma was out of control |
| Too few were using preventer inhalers properly | Preventers reduce the inflammation that causes attacks |
| Many had no personal asthma action plan | Patients did not know what to do when symptoms worsened |
That last point matters for everyone with asthma. A written asthma action plan, agreed with a GP or asthma nurse, tells you exactly what to do as your symptoms change, and when to call for help.
What can trigger a fatal attack
An asthma attack happens when the airways become inflamed, the muscles around them tighten, and they fill with mucus. Many things can set one off.
| Trigger | Examples |
|---|---|
| Infections | Colds, flu, COVID-19 and other chest infections |
| Allergens | Pollen, house dust mites, pet dander, mould |
| Weather | Cold air, sudden temperature changes, thunderstorms |
| Pollution and smoke | Traffic fumes, cigarette smoke, wildfire smoke |
| Exercise | Especially in cold, dry air if asthma is not well controlled |
| Some medicines | Such as aspirin or ibuprofen in a minority of people |
Winter is a dangerous season, because colds and flu are among the most common triggers. We explain more in why winter kills more people than summer, and the flu itself is covered on our seasonal flu page.
One of the strangest triggers is thunderstorm asthma. In November 2016, a severe thunderstorm in Melbourne, Australia, broke pollen grains into tiny particles that were blown deep into people's lungs. Thousands needed emergency care in a matter of hours, and 10 people died.
Smoking, including secondhand smoke, is a major aggravating factor too. See our smoking page for its full impact.
The warning signs
If you or someone you live with has asthma, these are the signs that it is getting out of control, and that an attack may be on the way:
- Using your reliever inhaler three or more times a week
- Waking at night with coughing, wheezing or a tight chest
- Symptoms getting in the way of work, school, exercise or sleep
- Needing more puffs of the reliever to get the same effect
- Feeling breathless doing things that are normally easy
During an attack, the signs to call for emergency help are: the reliever is not helping, you are too breathless to speak, eat or sleep, your lips or fingers look blue or grey, or a child is too breathless to talk or feed. In the UK, call 999. In the US, call 911. Do not wait to see if it gets better.
Simple things that save lives
Most of what prevents asthma deaths is not high-tech. It is routine care, done consistently:
- Use the preventer inhaler every day, even when you feel well, if one has been prescribed.
- Check your inhaler technique with a pharmacist or asthma nurse. Many people use their inhalers wrongly for years without realising.
- Have an asthma review at least once a year, and after any attack.
- Get a flu jab each autumn if you are eligible, because chest infections are one of the most common triggers.
- Keep a written action plan where you and the people you live with can find it.
None of these are expensive in the UK or US. Globally, the problem is access: WHO lists inhaled steroids as essential medicines, yet in many countries they are still unaffordable for the families who need them most.
Asthma deaths are falling, slowly
Globally, death rates from asthma have fallen over the past few decades, mostly thanks to the spread of inhaled corticosteroids, the brown or orange preventer inhalers that calm the inflammation in the airways. The Global Burden of Disease 2023 study also reported falling asthma mortality among younger males.
There is also a cautionary history. In the 1960s, the UK and several other countries saw a sudden epidemic of asthma deaths that was linked to the overuse of high-dose reliever inhalers. Once doctors understood the problem and changed prescribing, deaths fell. The lesson still applies: relying only on a reliever, without treating the underlying inflammation, can be dangerous.
If you want to compare asthma with other leading causes of death, try our compare causes tool, or look at lower respiratory infections, which kill far more people each year and often trigger asthma attacks. World Pneumonia Day is a reminder of how closely lung conditions are linked.
While you were reading
In the eleven minutes it took to read this article, roughly 10 people died from asthma somewhere in the world, and around 1,300 people died from all causes. Most of those asthma deaths happened in places where a cheap preventer inhaler was out of reach. You can watch the count rising in real time, or see today's running total.
Data sources: World Health Organization asthma fact sheet (May 2024, 2019 estimates); US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FastStats asthma (2024 mortality data); Royal College of Physicians, National Review of Asthma Deaths (2014); Asthma + Lung UK and ONS mortality data; Thorax (2019) analysis of England and Wales asthma deaths; Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. Figures are rounded and daily figures are derived from annual totals. This article is for information only and is not medical advice. If you have asthma, ask your GP or asthma nurse for a personal asthma action plan, and in an emergency call 999 (UK) or 911 (US).
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