The ultimate goal and mission of the National Kidney Foundation is the eradication of diseases of the kidney and urinary tract. More than 20 million Americans, one in 9 adults, have chronic kidney disease. More than 20 million others are at increased risk. Kidney disease is one of the costliest illnesses in the U.S. today.

Here are nine other facts everyone should know.

1. More than 70,000 Americans die each year because of kidney disease.
   
2. More than 378,000 Americans suffer from chronic kidney failure and need an artificial kidney machine (dialysis) or kidney transplantation to stay alive.
   
3. More than 50,000 patients are waiting for kidney transplants, but only about 14,000 will receive transplants this year because of a shortage of suitable organ donors.
   
4. Diabetes mellitus (Type II adult onset) is the leading cause of chronic kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of the new cases each year and 35 percent of all cases in the U.S.
   
5. Uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure is the second leading cause of chronic kidney failure in the U.S., accounting for about 23 percent of U.S. cases.
   
6. Kidney and urologic diseases continue to be one of the major causes of work-loss among men and women. Each year, over 1 million physician visits and more than 300,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. resulted from kidney stones.
   
7. Urinary tract infections result in nearly 8.3 million office visits and 1.6 million hospitalizations.
   
8. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlargement of the prostate gland) affects 50 percent of men by age 51 to 60 and more than 90 percent of men over 80. This disease results in more than 350,000 surgical procedures annually.
   
9. Urinary incontinence, the loss of urine control caused by illnesses, medications or aging, is a major health problem in older persons. An estimated 13 million older Americans suffer from this problem.