How many people are thalassemia carriers?

Millions: Thalassemia is likely the most common one-gene mutation in the world. Overall, an estimated 20-25 million people are carriers (1/300) (about 1/1000 in low-risk peoples, and about 1/30 in high-risk peoples). Low risk: japanese, korean, n. European caucasians, native canadians, native americans. High risk: mediterranean, middle eastern, south asian, south-east Asian (western pacific rim), caribbean.

See below: The maldives has the highest incidence of thalassemia in the world with a carrier rate of 18% of the population. The estimated prevalence is 16% in people from cyprus, 1%[24] in thailand, and 3-8% in populations from bangladesh, china, india, malaysia and pakistan. Thalassemias also occur in descendants of people from latin america and mediterranean countries (e.g. Greece, italy, portugal, spain, .