Approximately how many people in the United States suffer from migraines?

• A. 5 million
• B. 15 million
• C. 30 million
• D. 50 million

Answer: (C)

Estimating how widespread migraines are in the United States.

Migraine affects about 12% of the population. With the U.S. population in the mid hundreds of millions, 12% works out to roughly 30 to 38 million people. In many educational materials this is rounded to about 30 million, making it the closest approximation among the options.

Five million would be far too low to match the typical prevalence, fifteen million is also below the common estimates, and fifty million would imply a higher prevalence than usually cited.