Statistics on cerebral palsy are not universally collected, but the UKCP Register has collected data so far on about 6,900 children. It is thought that about one in 500 children in the UK has some form of cerebral palsy, though this may be a slightly low figure. Some causes of CP have increased and some have decreased over the last 50 years, so the proportion of one in 500 is thought to have remained about the same. (The uncertainty is because statistics have been collected in different ways, also mild CP may not always have been included in the figures.)
Some further statistics analysed by UKCP:
About 43% of children with CP are girls and about 57% are boys.
About half were born before 37 weeks gestation, defined as “premature”.
About half have spastic cerebral palsy on both sides of the body (“bilateral”).
A third have hemiplegic spastic cerebral palsy.
About one in twenty have a dyskinetic and ataxic type of cerebral palsy.
About one in three is unable to walk.
About one in four cannot feed or dress themselves.
About one in five cannot use their hands.
About three in ten have severe learning difficulties
About one in fifty has severe hearing loss in both ears.
About one in eleven has no useful vision.
About one in four is reported to have epileptic seizures.
Except for children with very mild cerebral palsy, the condition affects life expectancy. Severer CP is associated with a lower life expectancy. A child of two who cannot walk, feed or dress, has severe learning difficulties and is blind, has a two in five chance of reaching age 20 years and may live into their thirties. Also:
- Children who were born preterm have a slightly better outlook than a child with the same impairments who was born at term.
- If a person with cerebral palsy lives to age 18, they are more than likely to live beyond age 40.
- Of those with cerebral palsy who die young, one in five have respiratory disease, and one in 25 have epilepsy as their underlying cause of death
