In the World Health Organization's (WHO) document:
"A global brief on HYPERTENSION, Silent killer, global public health crisis",
the WHO states that globally, hypertension (as at 2013) already affects one billion people worldwide with an estimated nine million people being killed by hypertension each year. WHO figures indicate that about 22% of the world's population aged 18 years and over had hypertension.

With factors such as demographic ageing and the globalisation of unhealthy lifestyles, the number of people affected by hypertension will only increase.