Down Syndrome- Some Statistics

Statistics for the US:

• Approximately 6000 babies are born with Down Syndrome each year in the US. This is about 16-17 babies per day.
• Overal odds are 1 in 700 in overall births for a baby to be born with Ds.
• Odds increase with Mothers age but 80% of babies with Ds are born to mothers who are under 35 years old.
• Ds is not only caused by the egg, it can also be the sperm, although the chance is less.
• Currently there are approximately 340,000 people in the US with Ds.
• Survival rate is to about 55 years, but this is an average. I think if you look at Ds babies who are born without a heart issue, this age may be close to the number for non Ds people. Also, open heart surgery on newborns has become 'routine' just in the past 15 years, so I think that initial rate is artificially low.
• One I do not like: Chances of Leukaemia are 15-20% greater for a person wioth Ds. Generally it is the kind of Leukaemia toddlers get. While knowing in the back of our heads the realities, we will not live our lives in fear, and not let anything get in the way of our enjoyment with her in our lives.

Statistics for The Netherlands:

• One in 650 births, and 80% are born to mothers 35 and younger.
• About 35%-40% have heart defects (smaller number than in the US).
• 1 and a half times as many babies are born with Ds in the Netherlands than 20 years ago.
• 16 in 10,000 babies are born with Ds.
• In 2003, 322 babies with Ds were born in NL. (In 2003, the population in NL was determined to be 16,149,000 by the UN.)