John Elflein
Research expert covering health and health care
Cardiovascular disease in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for around 21 percent of all deaths in 2022. Cardiovascular disease is a general term that is used to refer to many different conditions that affect the heart, including coronary heart disease, the most common type of heart disease, as well as heart failure, rheumatic heart disease, myocardial infarction (heart attack), and stroke. In addition to the loss of life, cardiovascular diseases also have a significant economic burden and although many cases are preventable by avoiding known risk factors, the risk of these diseases increases greatly with age. From 2019 to 2022, around 15 percent of those aged 65 years and older in the United States had been diagnosed with heart disease.
Heart disease deaths in the United States
In 2022, the odds that a person in the United States would die from heart disease were one in six. Coronary heart disease accounts for the highest share of cardiovascular disease deaths in the United States, followed by stroke. In 2021, around 40 percent of all cardiovascular disease deaths in the U.S. were due to coronary heart disease, while 18 percent were from stroke. In 2022, the overall death rate due to heart disease was 167 per 100,000 population. At that time, the states with the highest heart disease death rates were Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama, with southern states generally reporting the highest rates of such deaths in the United States.What are the costs of cardiovascular disease?
The costs of cardiovascular disease to the United States are difficult to measure, but inarguably great. It was estimated that from 2019 to 2020, indirect costs from such diseases, including lost productivity and mortality, reached around 168 billion U.S. dollars. In total, it was estimated that at that time cardiovascular diseases cost the United States around 422 billion U.S. dollars annually in direct and indirect costs. Heart diseases such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and pulmonary heart disease, account for over half of these costs, while stroke and hypertension are estimated to cost around 56.2 and 52.4 billion U.S. dollars per year, respectively.Risk factors for heart disease
Leading risk factors for heart disease include hypertension, smoking, being physically inactive, and obesity. Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking has decreased significantly in the United States over the past few decades, around 28 million people in the United States still smoke. It is estimated that those who smoke are around four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and stroke than those who do not smoke. While rates of smoking have decreased, the share of the population in the United States that is obese continues to rise. As of 2023, almost 33 percent of people in the U.S. were obese, with poor diets and a lack of physical activity the main contributors to this trend. Although cardiovascular disease will likely continue to be the leading cause of death in the United States, the burden of these conditions can be reduced by avoiding known risk factors and through exercise and a healthy diet.
