Background: eating disorders are a group of conditions in which negative beliefs about food, body shape, and body weight together with behaviors such as restricted food intake, binge eating, excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, and use of laxatives. They can become serious, affect quality of life, and lead to multiple physical and even psychiatric complications with a fatal outcome. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the characteristics, epidemiology, and trends of eating disorders with updated information based on the most recent publications. Methods: we conducted a systematic literature search in Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Web of Science. The search terms were "anorexia nervosa", "bulimia nervosa", "binge eating disorders" and "epidemiology" both in titles and in abstracts. Results and conclusions: EDs generally occur in adolescents and young adults. The best characterized TCAs are anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (TA). Prevalence studies indicate wide differences by age group and sex, much higher in young women (NA, 0.1-2 %; BN, 0.37-2.98 %; BED, 0.62-4.45 %). The prevalence of EDs is 2.2 % (0.2-13.1 %) in Europe, 3.5 % (0.6-7.8 %) in Asia, and 4.6 % (2.0-13.5 %) in America. Comorbidity is high with psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and personality disorders.