Overview
- Global prevalence rose from about 3% to roughly 6% between 2000 and 2020, based on pooled data from 443,914 children across 96 studies in 21 countries.
- Researchers estimate about 114 million children now live with high blood pressure worldwide.
- Rates climbed to 6.5% in boys and 5.8% in girls by 2020, with an additional 8.2% of children meeting prehypertension criteria.
- Obesity was identified as a principal factor, with hypertension seen in about 19% of children with obesity versus 2.4% at healthy weight, prompting calls for diet and activity interventions that cut salty and ultra-processed foods.
- U.S. clinicians report similar patterns domestically—about 1 in 10 youths have elevated readings and roughly 1 in 25 meet hypertension thresholds—and they recommend earlier screening and out-of-office monitoring to catch masked cases.