Motion Sickness Statistics: The Data, With Sources

Roughly a third of people are considered highly susceptible, getting sick easily from common motion, while almost everyone will become motion sick if the motion is intense enough.

Individual sensitivity spans an enormous range, from people sickened by the slightest provocation to those almost impossible to make ill.

The vestibular (inner-ear) system is required to trigger motion sickness; people who have completely lost labyrinthine function are the one group that does not get it.

The first genome-wide association study of motion sickness, run on a 23andMe cohort of 80,494 people, identified 35 genetic variants associated with susceptibility — confirming a strong, long-recognized genetic component.

A classical twin study of 3,652 adult female twins (TwinsUK) estimated heritability of motion-sickness susceptibility at 57% (95% CI 51–63%), highest in childhood (around 70%) and declining with age.

The international diagnostic-criteria consensus document of the Bárány Society states that motion sickness can be provoked in nearly the entire population given a sufficiently strong motion stimulus, with only individuals at the extremes of the susceptibility distribution (e.g., those with non-functioning vestibular systems) effectively exempt.

In a 2024 cross-sectional questionnaire study of 119 French civilian sailors (109 men, 10 women), 34% reported being seasick. Among those affected, nausea (87.5%) and cold sweats (50%) were the two most frequently described symptoms.

In a survey of researchers aboard French oceanographic vessels (223 respondents; 188 reported seasickness), the major symptoms among those affected were nausea (82%) and vomiting (56%).

Sopite syndrome, a symptom complex of drowsiness, lethargy, apathy and mood changes, has been recognized as a manifestation of motion sickness since Graybiel and Knepton coined the term in 1976, and was formally re-defined in the peer-reviewed literature in 2014.

Across childhood, motion-sickness susceptibility rises after infancy and reaches its highest point in the late-childhood window of roughly 7 to 12 years before declining into adulthood.

Motion sickness is uncommon in the youngest children, who are largely resistant before about age 2. Susceptibility rises afterward, peaking around ages 7-12, then declines through adulthood and old age.

Standard clinical reference framing of the age curve: motion sickness is rare under 2, most common in the 2-12 childhood window, then becomes less common with age (new-onset movement-based motion sickness is uncommon after age 50).

In a cross-sectional study of 831 schoolchildren aged 7-12, roughly two in five reported motion sickness during car or bus travel - far more than on amusement rides.

A large German parent-reported survey covering 5,041 children aged 3 months to 18 years mapped susceptibility as an inverse-U curve - near-absent in infancy, peaking in mid-childhood, then declining after puberty.

Susceptibility tends to decline from its childhood peak through adulthood, and new cases driven by physical motion become uncommon past midlife (though older adults can be more prone to visually induced motion sickness).

Quantifies the adulthood decline: motion sickness is reported as a frequent problem about twice as often in younger adults as in those over 60.

In a 1997 study of 535 individuals across multiple population groups, women were more prone to motion sickness than men (27.3% vs. 16.8%), illustrating the well-documented sex difference in susceptibility.

Motion sickness susceptibility in women peaks around menstruation and is lowest pre-menstrually, but this cyclic fluctuation explains only about one-third of why women are more susceptible than men overall — implicating additional hormonal/biological factors.

Among 2,381 pregnant women, a personal history of motion sickness was associated with more than triple the odds of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (OR 3.17), consistent with a shared susceptibility — possibly vestibular — between the two conditions.

Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) is extremely common: 78.5% of women report it during the first trimester (52.2% mild, 45.3% moderate, 2.5% severe), with the broader literature placing the range at 50-90%. The cited paper documents NVP prevalence and determinants; it does not itself establish a mechanistic overlap with motion sickness.

Within-cycle hormonal variation shifts motion sickness risk, peaking during menstruation, helping explain day-to-day variability women report. (Small study, n=12; the authors note this cycle variation accounts for only about a third of the overall sex difference.)

In a large five-country survey, nearly half of adults reported some degree of carsickness as a car passenger within the previous five years, and almost six in ten when childhood experiences are counted.

A controlled experiment isolated control over the motion as the key reason drivers are largely immune to carsickness while passengers are not.

A large field study of UK bus and coach journeys quantified how common travel sickness symptoms are among ordinary road-transport passengers.

Visual-vestibular conflict from looking down at text or screens rather than the road ahead is a documented driver of carsickness, which is why looking forward is advised.

As riders become passengers (autonomous vehicles, rideshare) and turn to reading, texting and screens, motion sickness is projected to become more common. Based on a six-country survey of intended in-vehicle activities; figures are projections, not measured incidence.

In a study of expedition cruise-ship passengers crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica during rough seas, the paper reports that the prevalence of motion sickness approaches 100% under rough-sea conditions; in this cohort, motion-sickness risk was statistically associated with age and sex.

In the largest field survey of seasickness ever conducted, 7% of ferry/ship passengers vomited and an additional ~29% felt at least slightly unwell during their voyage.

Among Indian Navy personnel assessed for sea sickness, most cases were mild, but roughly 1 in 5 (19.31%) had moderately severe symptoms requiring medication and rest, and a small fraction (1.91%) had severe symptoms requiring them to be excused from duties.

Among scientists working aboard French oceanographic research vessels, the large majority reported experiencing seasickness, with women at significantly higher risk than men.

In a survey of 119 French civilian seafarers (109 men, 10 women), about a third (34%) reported seasickness and 30% experienced it regularly. Prevalence was higher in women (60%) than men (31%), though the female estimate rests on only 10 women in the sample and should be read with caution. Main symptoms: nausea 87.5%, cold sweats 50%, yawning 42.5%.

In a survey of fare-paying passengers on UK short-haul (mostly turboprop) flights, most passengers were fine, but a meaningful minority felt unwell, with illness rates on individual flights ranging from 0% up to 47.8% depending on the aircraft and conditions.

Among Italian Air Force student pilots, more than one in three experienced airsickness during basic flight training, with no significant difference between men and women in overall incidence.

Overall airsickness incidence during basic flight training was 34.8% with no significant gender difference, but among those who got airsick, women were nearly four times as likely to adapt slowly to the motion environment over training — highlighting a sex difference in recovery/adaptation rather than initial susceptibility.

An NTSB safety study found that turbulence-related accidents accounted for more than a third (about 38%) of all U.S. air carrier (Part 121) accidents from 2009 through 2018, with most of these accidents resulting in one or more serious injuries but no aircraft damage.

Serious turbulence injuries fall overwhelmingly on flight attendants (who are often up and moving), not seated passengers; the NTSB noted nearly all injured passengers were unbelted when turbulence hit.

In a 10-minute head-mounted VR immersion, roughly two-thirds of participants developed cybersickness and nearly a quarter reached severe levels, underscoring how common the problem is.

Cybersickness is severe enough that a meaningful share of users must stop a VR session early; in this study nearly 1 in 4 reached the maximum-symptom threshold (Fast Motion Sickness Scale score of 15+) before the 10 minutes were up.

A meta-analysis of the head-mounted-display literature pooled SSQ scores across 55 studies and 3,016 participants, establishing an average total sickness score the authors described as 'relatively high.'

The same meta-analysis shows VR sickness roughly doubles depending on content: action gaming provokes the most sickness while passive/scenic content provokes the least.

Artificial controller-driven movement (a major sensory-conflict trigger) produces roughly twice the sickness of natural real-walking locomotion, showing locomotion design strongly drives cybersickness.

Women report markedly more cybersickness than men immediately after VR; the researchers attribute much of this to headset fit, since a far greater share of women cannot properly set the headset's interpupillary distance (33.3% of women vs 0% of men in the study).

Hardware choice measurably changes cybersickness: a headset with continuous interpupillary-distance adjustment produced significantly lower sickness than one with only fixed IPD settings.

In a prospective crossover observational study of 497 healthy adult volunteers, more than half developed visually induced motion-sickness symptoms (SSQ total score >15) after a 3D cinema movie — nearly four times the rate after the same content in 2D (3.9x). Symptom intensity rose to 8.8x baseline after 3D vs. 2x after 2D.

A peer-reviewed Human Factors paper characterizes how widely VIMS prevalence swings across laboratory studies of visual displays, driven by VR equipment, experimental setup, and visual content. The 1%-80% range is the paper's synthesis of heterogeneous prior studies (1% from Kluver et al., 2015; up to 80% from Cobb, 1999 and Stanney et al.), not a single point-prevalence estimate.

In the VIMSSQ validation survey (N=322), 29.5% of users said motion-sickness-like symptoms (e.g. nausea, dizziness, eyestrain) caused them to stop or significantly reduce use of certain visual devices — 3D movies were the most frequently avoided (14.3%), followed by smartphones, IMAX theaters, simulators, video games, and VR.

NASA's official OCHMO Medical Technical Brief (OCHMO-MTB-004, Rev A, 09/25/2025) states that Space Adaptation Sickness affects 70-90% of crewmembers during spaceflight, ranging from mild to severe, with initial symptoms in most crew in the first 3-7 days. (Note: the same brief's executive summary phrases this as affecting 'up to 73% of crewmembers during the first 2-3 days.')

A peer-reviewed systematic review in Frontiers in Neural Circuits states that SMS affects around 70% of astronauts within the first 72 hours of traveling to and returning from microgravity. (This is cited in the review's introduction as established background prevalence from prior space-medicine literature, not a pooled estimate from the review's own analysis.)

University of Michigan researchers calculated the share of American adults who would often, usually, or always feel some level of motion sickness once they become passengers in fully self-driving cars and engage in non-driving activities.

The UMTRI analysis estimated that 6%-12% of American adults riding in fully self-driving vehicles would be expected to experience moderate or severe (not just mild) motion sickness at some time, based on expected frequencies of non-driving activities from a six-country survey.

In the UMTRI survey of what people would do instead of driving in a fully self-driving vehicle, more than a third of Americans said they would engage in motion-sickness-inducing activities such as reading, texting, watching movies/TV, playing games, or working. The researchers projected that roughly 6-12% of US adults would experience moderate or severe motion sickness as a result.

A UMTRI survey of more than 3,200 adults across six countries (U.S., India, China, Japan, Great Britain, Australia) asked what people would do instead of driving in a fully self-driving vehicle. Large shares in every market said they would read, text, watch video, game, or work—activities that raise the likelihood and severity of motion sickness—indicating the AV motion-sickness problem is global, not just American.

A peer-reviewed Ergonomics study frames the core forecast: as automation transforms drivers into passengers, AV deployment is expected to sharply raise how common motion sickness becomes.

UMTRI identifies that giving up driving control removes the rider's ability to anticipate and counteract motion. Per the report, the three main factors contributing to motion sickness (vestibular-visual conflict, inability to anticipate the direction of motion, and lack of control over the direction of motion) are all elevated in self-driving vehicles, underscoring why the problem is structural rather than incidental.

With prolonged exposure to the same provocative motion, individuals tend to adapt and symptoms subside, but the course of adaptation varies and a few days are usually needed before a significant level of adaptation is achieved.

Adaptation is far from universal: roughly half of the population may succeed in habituating to seasickness, while at least 5% of people with motion sickness show no signs of habituation at all.

The flip side of habituation: after the brain adapts to ship motion, many people feel lingering rocking/swaying on returning to land, which is usually short-lived. The authors interpret M-D as adaptive central-nervous-system multisensorimotor plasticity in response to an abnormal motion environment.

Among people diagnosed with persistent MdDS, symptoms last on average from roughly 3 years (motion-triggered) to nearly 7 years (spontaneous onset), and the condition overwhelmingly affects women in mid-life.

In an army helicopter simulator, the majority of aircrew reported simulator-sickness symptoms (mostly rated as slight), showing that motion-related symptoms are common even in ground-based training devices.

In a study of 1,293 healthy male sailors at Khulna Naval Base, more than four in ten (523 sailors) reported seasickness, with most cases minor but a notable share requiring temporary duty exemption.

In a study of 179 navy recruits on extended sea duty (median ~30 days), 36% were susceptible to seasickness in the early period and 17% remained poorly adapted in the late period; 39% were never treated for seasickness, implying about 61% required treatment during the observation period.

A landmark U.S. Navy survey systematically documented simulator-sickness symptoms across aircrew at 10 flight simulators, establishing simulator sickness as a measurable cost to military training. Helicopter simulators with CRT infinity optics and six-degrees-of-freedom moving-base systems showed the highest incidence, while fixed-wing, fixed-base dome displays showed relatively low incidence. This foundational dataset, by the same lead authors, helped lay the groundwork for the later (1993) Simulator Sickness Questionnaire.

The U.S. CDC's authoritative travel-medicine reference states that the leading drawback of the antihistamines and scopolamine used to prevent motion sickness is sedation, and ranks the agents by how sedating they are.

PET imaging shows first-generation H1 antihistamines (the class that includes dimenhydrinate, meclizine, and diphenhydramine used for motion sickness) heavily cross into the brain, which is why they so commonly cause drowsiness and impair cognition and psychomotor performance.

Because of the sedating central-nervous-system effects of the antihistamines (dimenhydrinate, diphenhydramine, meclizine, promethazine) commonly used against motion sickness, pilots are barred from taking them — a concrete marker of how impairing the drowsiness side effect is.

A Cochrane systematic review found scopolamine (patch, tablet, oral or IV) prevents motion-sickness symptoms better than placebo and was no more likely than other agents to cause drowsiness, blurred vision, or dizziness — though dry mouth was more common.

Despite widespread use of drug-free remedies (ginger, acupressure/P6 wristbands, vitamins), the CDC's travel-medicine reference concludes the supporting evidence is weak, and lab trials show acupressure performs no better than placebo.

Industry market-sizing of the (largely OTC) motion-sickness treatment category, indicating the commercial scale of medication and remedy use; this is a commercial market-research report figure rather than peer-reviewed data, and estimates vary widely across firms and report scopes.

In a survey of Icelandic seamen, where 87.8% had experienced seasickness in their lives, only about one-fifth self-treated with OTC remedies and prescription anti-seasickness drugs were rarely used.

In Yachting World's survey of the 2015 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, 119 of 456 respondents (26%) experienced seasickness. Of those 119, 67 (57%) used some form of prevention strategy or remedy and 52 (43%) used none. The most common remedies were Stugeron (cinnarizine) and scopolamine patches.

In an interview-based cross-sectional survey of 349 Saudi residents (Riyadh region), 23.5% reported severe dizziness during metro travel, yet across the full sample 85.7% took nothing before or during travel to feel better. The 14.3% who did self-treat mostly used non-drug measures (gum 8.3%, coffee 3.4%, water 1.4%, ginger drink 0.6%) rather than medication.

In a peer-reviewed Italian survey of 155 dogs, more than 4 in 10 (43.6%) showed travel-related problems during car transport, with signs including panting (47.7%), restlessness (43.1%) and vocalization (40%).

VCA Animal Hospitals, a major veterinary hospital network, states that motion (car) sickness is more common in younger dogs than in adults, possibly because the parts of the inner ear involved in balance are not yet fully developed, and that puppies often outgrow it by the time they are about 1 year old.