About 5/100,000 persons per year develop Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. It is the second most common cause of acute peripheral facial paralysis although the varicella-zoster virus must be present in the subject to develop Ramsay Hunt syndrome. With this assumption it is suggested that those who have not been exposed to chickenpox as a child will, generally, be unaffected. Shingles is also thought be more likely to occur with advancing age and therefore complications arising from shingles (resulting in Ramsay Hunt syndrome) in the same age group will similarly rise.

Although Ramsay Hunt syndrome is not contagious, open lesions may theorectically pass on the virus to people who have not contracted varicella zoster.

Bell's palsy affects about 0.2% of the population although there are geographical variations across the world. There are equal instances in males, females and race but the frequency is observed to rise in the elderly.

Children are not usually affected although there are cases; diabetics are four times more likely to contract it; pregnant women in the last trimester of birth are more susceptible to it and those with weakened immune systems like HIV sufferers are more vulnerable to it.