prevalence
Pluralprevalences (some meanings)
- 1The state of being widespread or common; the extent to which something is found throughout an area or group.
The prevalence of remote work has reshaped how cities use their office space.
Researchers noted the growing prevalence of plastic waste along the coastline.
Similarpervasiveness, ubiquity, commonness, spread, frequency
- 2The proportion of a population that has a particular disease at a given time, found by dividing the number of cases by the total number of individuals.
The study reported a high prevalence of diabetes among older adults in the region.
Vaccination programs aim to reduce the prevalence of measles worldwide.
Note
Epidemiologists treat it as a snapshot rather than a flow: it counts everyone who has the condition at a point or over a period, old cases and new alike. Its partner term is incidence, which counts only newly arising cases. Prevalence therefore reflects how long a disease lasts as well as how often it begins. Outside the field, the everyday "widespread" sense carries no number at all.
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Origin
Borrowed from the Middle French word prévalence.