Agoraphobia - Prevalence

The one-year prevalence of agoraphobia is about 5 percent. Agoraphobia occurs about two times more commonly among women than men (Magee et al.,1996). The gender difference may be attributable to social/cultural factors that encourage, or permit, the greater expression of avoidant coping strategies by women (DSM-IV), although other explanations are possible.

References

Magee, W. J., Eaton, W. W., Wittchen, H. U., McGonagle, K. A., & Kessler, R. C. (1996). Agoraphobia, simple phobia, and social phobia in the National Comorbidity Survey, Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 159–168.