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robert l dolezal, who has sharp eyes, wrote: > ... but where did these guys come up with a PD population of 7 > million "around the world?" .... for starters, if up to 1.5 million > of us have it in the U. S. of A., with a mere 290 million people, > how can there be only 7 million with the disease in a world of > about 6 billion people? Well, it's an improvement over the World Health Organization's 3.6-3.7 million total, based on a world prevalence percent of .07 that they came up with! - see www.who.int/msa/mnh/ems/rates/parkinso.htm This got me going, so I looked up some of the many population numbers that the US Census Bureau provides on-line, and found this: The US has 4.6 percent of the world's population (265 million out of a world estimate of 5.77 billion in 1996). But in the prime PD age bracket of 45 years old & up the US has 6.6 percent (83 million out of an esimated world total of 1263 million), and 7.8 percent of people 65 and up. Using the 45 and up age bracket and assuming (and I have no right to such an assumption) a uniform world prevalence rate and 1 million PWPs in the US, that would give about 15 million PWPs worldwide (plus or minus some big error amount) as a very rough ballpark figure, which should perhaps be reduced a bit owing to a somewhat shorter life expectancy in the non-industrialized world. Phil Tompkins Hoboken NJ age 60/dx 1990