Nearly 1 in 7 American adults had bloating in the past week. That's the headline from one of the largest surveys ever done on the symptom, and it's a useful number to keep in mind if you've assumed you're unusual.
Here's what the biggest studies on bloating found, who reports it most, and what the numbers can and can't tell you.
The US survey: nearly 89,000 people
Researchers from Cedars-Sinai and the University of Michigan analyzed the National Gastrointestinal Survey II, completed by 88,795 Americans. Of these, 13.9% reported bloating in the past 7 days (Oh et al., 2023).
Women were more likely to report bloating, as were people with conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic constipation or ulcerative colitis, and people with other gut symptoms like abdominal pain or excess gas. The same factors were linked to more severe bloating (Oh et al., 2023).
One finding stands out: 58.5% of people with recent bloating had never sought care for it. Of those, 29% were managing it on their own or felt uncomfortable discussing it with a clinician (Oh et al., 2023).
The global picture: 26 countries
The Rome Foundation Global Epidemiology Study used a stricter definition: bloating at least once a week for the past 3 months. After excluding people with possible organic causes of bowel symptoms, the analysis included 51,425 adults in 26 countries (Ballou et al., 2023).
Nearly 18% met that definition, ranging from 11% in East Asia to 20% in Latin America. Women were about twice as likely as men to report weekly bloating. Bloating was strongly linked to abdominal pain, and it was less common in older age groups (Ballou et al., 2023).
That last point may seem to contradict your own experience after 40. But a survey like this compares different people at one point in time. It can't show how bloating changes for one person over the years, or capture the shifts many women notice in their forties. Here's what changes in the gut during this decade.
Bloating rarely shows up alone
An earlier US study surveyed employees of a Veterans Affairs health care system. Of 723 people who responded, 21% reported bloating. It was reported by 64% of people with IBS, 42% of those with dyspepsia (upper abdominal discomfort) and 35% of those with constipation without IBS. Only 7% had bloating with no other bowel disorder (Tuteja et al., 2008).
In that study, bloating was linked to smoking and high-dose aspirin use, and people with bloating scored lower on every part of a standard quality-of-life questionnaire. Bloating was not linked to how physically active people were (Tuteja et al., 2008).
Among people who already have IBS, bloating is close to the rule. In a US survey of 337 people with IBS, 82.5% reported bloating, which ranked as the second most bothersome symptom after cramping. It was more common in women (87.4%) than in men (70.4%), and more than half of the group regularly used anti-gas medications (Ringel et al., 2009).
With constipation, the overlap is even higher. Among 2,203 patients with functional constipation or IBS with constipation seen at 39 specialist centers, 91.6% reported bloating. Their average age was about 50, and 82.1% were women. Bloating was associated with worse quality of life and lower satisfaction with treatment (Neri and Iovino, 2016).
