Lyme Disease Charts and Figures: Historical Data

Related Pages

While reported cases of Lyme disease can occur year-round, May, June, July, and August are the peak months for being diagnosed with Lyme disease, with June and July being the peak months. April, September, October, and November have far fewer cases than the summer months, but December, January, February, and March have the fewest cases of reported Lyme disase.

Lyme disease—Confirmed cases by month of disease onset, United States, 2008-2017
 Month of disease onset Cases
 January  4,138
February 3,606
March 4,751
April 7,167
May 17,801
June 57,380
July 58,092
August 23,354
September 12,855
October 11,394
November 6,993
December 3,945

Lyme disease confirmed cases by age and sex United States, 2001-2018

Lyme disease—Confirmed cases by age and sex—United States, 2001-2017
 Age Group Male Female
0-4 10,129 9,174
5-9 24,100 16,420
10-14 22,348 11,718
15-19 15,064 7,916
20-24 9,830 6,158
25-29 8,782 6,132
30-34 9,691 7,595
35-39 11,709 9,579
40-44 14,297 11,661
45-49 17,049 13,771
50-54 18,674 16,108
55-59 17,950 16,062
60-64 15,505 13,867
65-69 12,747 11,699
70-74 9,138 8,762
75-79 6,079 6,302
80-84 3,340 3,601
85-89 1,379 1,614
90+ 402 514

From 2008-2018 of the 235,037 reported confirmed cases of Lyme disease; 70% of patients had an erythema migrans rash; 29% had arthritis symptoms; 9% had facial palsy; 4% had radiculoneuropathy; 2% had meningitis or encephalitis; and 1% had cardiitis.

*Data on signs/symptoms available for only 62% of 288,107 confirmed cases.  Due to the way surveillance data is collected, patients with severe symptoms or later manifestations may be more likely be included in the above figure, and percentages presented may be higher than what is typically seen in a “real world” setting.

 

Lyme Disease reported cases of by year, United States, 1998-2018

Lyme Disease—Reported cases of by year, United States, 1997-2017
Year Confirmed Cases Probable Cases
1996 16,455 —
1997 12,801 —
1998 16,802 —
1999 16,273 —
2000 17,730 —
2001 17,029 —
2002 23,763 —
2003 21,273 —
2004 19,804 —
2005 23,305 —
2006 19,931 —
2007 27,444 —
2008 28,921 6,277
2009 29,959 8,509
2010 22,561 7,597
2011 24,364 8,733
2012 22,014 8,817
2013 27,203 9,104
2014 25,359 8,102
2015 28,453 9,616
2016 26,203 10,226
2017 29,513 13,230
2018 23,558 10,108

*National Surveillance case definition revised in 2008 to include probable cases.

Page last reviewed: November 22, 2019
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD)