Cystic fibrosis is a serious genetic disorder with reduced life expectancy. a common genetic disorder among Caucasian people, this disease occurs in one of every 3,200 Caucasian births. the mutation in the gene varies according to the geographical background. Cystic fibrosis occurs in one out of every 15,000 African-American births. the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis patients has been increasing over the past 40 years. In the 1980s life expectancy of people with cystic fibrosis was 14 years.

10 years back, the life expectancy of a person with cystic fibrosis was around 18 years. Today it is 35 years. the median life expectancy of a newborn with cystic fibrosis has increased from 4 years to 32 years. it has been estimated that there has been more than 10 year increase in the average life expectancy of affected people in North America. Over 90% of the affected infants now survive beyond one year. Studies show that life expectancy of children will exceed 40 years. Life expectancy of individuals with adequate pancreatic function can be more than 50 years.

In the United States, approximately 30,000 people have cystic fibrosis. Around 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year. one child of every 3,500 is born with cystic fibrosis. In Canada, the overall cystic fibrosis birth rate from 1971-1970 was stable. From 1988, cystic fibrosis birth rate increased to a rate of 1 in 3,608. Cystic fibrosis birth rate is stable for the last few years. In the UK, cystic fibrosis birth is about 1 in 2400 and 4% of the people are cystic fibrosis carriers.

80% of patients are diagnosed by the age of three. 10% of patients are diagnosed at the age of 18 and 3% patients are diagnosed in adulthood. Vast improvements in treatment have increased the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis patients.