Mark Perrin-Jones

A study by the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in children has seen some enormous differences from country to country. New figures on childhood asthma worldwide revealed that in Japan, small children are more likely to have asthma than if they were living in China! In various countries the asthma percentages among 14 year olds can be as low as 1.9% and can be as high in other countries as 36.7%! The highest rates per capita are in Australia, Japan, Canada and Latin America.

In the Western Pacific region, Japan and Hong Kong have the highest at 13.2% and 12.4% respectively whilst China however has the lowest at 3.1%

These figures came from The Lancet.