Heart Disease Fact Sheet

Age adjusted average annual deaths per 100,000 among men ages 35 and older, by county. Rates range from 103.6 to 1094.1 per 100,000. The map shows that concentrations of counties with the highest heart disease death rates - meaning the top quintile - are located primarily in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. Pockets of high-rate counties also were found in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Nevada.

Source: Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke

Heart Disease Facts

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2015 were in men.¹
About 630,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.¹
Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing about 366,000 people in 2015.¹
In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds. Each minute, more than one person in the United States dies from a heart disease-related event.²
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial/ethnic groups in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. For Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders and American Indians or Alaska Natives, heart disease is second only to cancer.³
Heart disease costs the United States about $200 billion each year.¹ This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity.

Risk Factors

High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and smoking are key heart disease risk factors for heart disease. About half of Americans (49%) have at least one of these three risk factors.⁵

Several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including:

Diabetes
Overweight and obesity
Poor diet
Physical inactivity
Excessive alcohol use

CDC’s Public Health Efforts Related to Heart Disease

For More Information

For more information on heart disease, visit the following Web sites.

Resources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Multiple Cause of Death 1999-2015 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released December 2016. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2015, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10.html.
Heron M. Deaths: Leading causes for 2014. [PDF-4.4M] National vital statistics reports. 2016;65(5).
Benjamin EJ, Blaha MJ, Chiuve SE, Cushman M, Das SR, Deo R, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2017 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2017;135:e1–e458. DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000485.
Heidenriech PA, Trogdon JG, Khavjou OA, Butler J, Dracup K, Ezekowitz MD, et al. Forecasting the future of cardiovascular disease in the United States: a policy statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2011;123(8):933–44.
CDC. Million Hearts™: strategies to reduce the prevalence of leading cardiovascular disease risk factors. United States, 2011. MMWR 2011;60(36):1248–51.