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Incidence of Parkinson’s Disease in 2025

  • ddarko29
  • Feb 23
  • 4 min read

 

Analysing the Numbers: Parkinson’s Incidence and Prevalence Rates in 2025



In October 2025, Parkinson’s UK published a new study in the Movement Disorders Clinical Practice journal. The study looks into the incidence and prevalence rates of Parkinson’s and seven other Parkinsonism disorders in the UK. Researchers analysed population-based data in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Gold and Aurum from 2003 to 2023.


This is the largest study of its kind, both in scale and sample size. Now that the results are in, it’s clear that the reported increase in the population of people living with Parkinson’s does not quite match what prior studies had predicted.


This article summarises the key findings from this study and the driving factors behind the numbers.


Key Findings



Here’s what thoroughly analysing 20 years of population-based data reveals about the state of Parkinson’s in the UK.


Parkinson’s Incidence Declined and Stabilised Before COVID-19


From 2003 to 2010, the incidence (i.e. the number of new cases) of Parkinson’s dropped by an average of 4.7% per year. And from 2011 to 2019, the annual decline in incidence somewhat stabilised at around 0.3% per year. These figures contradict the expected acceleration  of Parkinson’s prevalence predicted in other studies. For example, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) analysis estimated a sharp rise in the number of new Parkinson’s cases between 2003 and 2019. However, the estimate starts with a significantly small number for 2003, which might explain this discrepancy.


The study shows a similar trend with the prevalence rate. The number of people living with Parkinson’s fell by 0.6% annually from 2003 to 2019. Researchers project 165,186 prevalent Parkinson’s cases for 2025 and 172,505 for 2030.


However, there was a 1.4% annual increase in the absolute total numbers of people living with Parkinson’s between 2003 and 2019. The researchers attributed this to the increasing population size with a larger proportion of older people.


The mismatch in incidence and prevalence rates among different studies can also be linked to better recognition of other forms of Parkinsonism that would otherwise be coded or misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s. This argument makes sense since the incidence and prevalence of other types of Parkinsonism rose during the same period. Also, variations in research and statistical methodologies may contribute to inconsistent results.


Parkinson’s Incidence Rate Continued to Decline Post COVID-19


Researchers compared data from the four years before COVID-19 (2016–2019) and four years after (2020–2023), and they found that Parkinson’s incidence dropped by 20.4%.

Between 2019 and 2021, new cases of Parkinson’s dropped from 26,000 to 19,300—that’s a 26% decline. And even today, those numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

This indicates a critical Parkinson’s care gap during and after COVID-19. Researchers from Parkinson’s UK attribute this could be due to limited access to Parkinson’s diagnostic systems resulting from a shortage of Parkinson’s specialists. Inevitably, this causes huge backlogs, with experts estimating that 20,000 people are currently waiting for a Parkinson’s diagnosis.


In short, the NHS has not fully recovered from the pandemic, at least not in a way that restores its capacity to identify new cases of Parkinson’s.


Parkinson’s Survival Rate Is Lower for Older Men


Of all eight Parkinsonian disorders, Parkinson’s has the best 5-year survival rate at 64.2%. Life expectancy is, of course, lower for people living with Parkinson’s than for those without. And as expected, young onset cases were found to have a longer life expectancy than those with later/ older onset Parkinson’s.


Additionally, the study found that Parkinson’s was significantly more common in males than in females. To be more specific, 59% of people living with Parkinson’s the UK are men. The risk of death from is also greater in men, and that risk rises with the age at diagnosis.

The study delved deeper into the demographics, examining the relationship between ethnicity and Parkinson’s. Researchers noted that incidence and prevalence were significantly lower among people of African and Caribbean ethnicities, compared to Asians and Whites ethnicities.


Deprived Areas Have Lower Prevalence Rate of Parkinson’s


The researchers also investigated how rurality and deprivation affected Parkinson’s prevalence and incidence. What they found was quite interesting. Parkinson’s incidence and prevalence were higher in rural areas, but that prevalence declines with deprivation. Parkinson’s is 9% less prevalent in the most deprived areas.


Potential explanations for lower prevalence in more deprived areas include limited access to Parkinson’s diagnosis and care, and lifestyle factors.


Scotland Has a Much Lower Parkinson’s Prevalence Rate


Scotland had a 14% lower Parkinson’s prevalence rate than the other countries in the UK, a finding that even the researchers admit is peculiar and warrants further investigation.

Although the researchers speculated that this discrepancy may be due to the Scots having a lower rate of Parkinson’s genes. Or it could be linked to cigarette smoking, higher age-standardised death rates from other illnesses, or the use of dopamine transporter scans. Given the available data, researchers had no way of verifying these beyond educated speculations.


Summary



This study was quite intensive and thorough. The sample was a broad cross-section of UK-wide population-based data spanning 20 years. And crucially, that timeframe included the COVID-19 pandemic period, giving a clear picture of how the disruption affected Parkinson’s statistics.


Overall, the study shows slow and stable declining trends of Parkinson’s prevalence and incidence over the last 20 years, contradicting prior predictions from smaller studies, but that’s not to say that Parkinson’s numbers are going down. Clinicians have become better at distinguishing Parkinson’s from other Parkinsonian syndromes, additionally the NHS is still lagging behind in diagnosis. There could be over 20,000 people living with Parkinson’s in the UK without even knowing it—that’s a huge number.


The study also sheds new light on otherwise underrated prevalence, incidence, and survival rate factors such as rurality, deprivation, ethnicity, and gender.


Final Thoughts



We cannot continue to leave Parkinson’s care behind. There are still over 160,000 people living with Parkinson’s in the UK who need medical, therapeutic, and moral support.

Granted, Parkinson’s care has come a long way over the years, and this study reflects that progress. According to the data, 10% of people living with Parkinson’s do not receive dopaminergic treatment. That indicates that most people are now receiving crucial early treatment after diagnosis.

Still, more needs to be done in terms of access to Parkinson’s diagnosis, specialised care, monitoring, and personalised treatments.

 

 
 
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