Heart Disease Facts

What to know

Learn facts about how race, ethnicity, age, and other risk factors can contribute to heart disease risk. It’s important for everyone to know the facts about heart disease.

A health care worker holding a red plastic heart in her hands

Heart disease in the United States

In the United States:

  • Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups.1
  • One person dies every 34 seconds from cardiovascular disease.1
  • In 2023, 919,032 people died from cardiovascular disease. That's the equivalent of 1 in every 3 deaths.1
  • Heart disease cost about $417.9 billion from 2020to 2021.2This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

.

View Larger
Map illustrating heart disease death rates by county in the United States from 2018–2020 for adults ages 35+.
Heart Disease Death Rates, 2018–2020 for Adults, Ages 35+, by County.

Coronary artery disease (CAD)

  • Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease. It killed 371,506 people in 2022.1
  • About 1 in 20 adults age 20 and older have CAD (about 5%).3
  • In 2023, about 1 out of every 6 deaths from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) was among adults younger than 65 years old.1

Heart attack

  • In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds.3
  • Every year, about 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack.3 Of these, 605,000 are a first heart attack, and 200,000 happen to be people who have already had a heart attack.3
  • About 1 in 5 heart attacks are silent—the damage is done, but the person is not aware of it.3

Did you know?

Early action is important for heart attack. Know the warning signs and symptoms of a heart attack.
Illustration of plaque in the arteries.
As plaque builds up in the arteries of a person with heart disease, the inside of the arteries begins to narrow, which lessens or blocks the flow of blood.

Who is affected

Heart disease deaths vary by sex, race, and ethnicity

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. These include African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Hispanic, and White men. For women from the Pacific Islands and Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hispanic women, heart disease is second only to cancer.1

Below are the percentages of all deaths caused by heart disease in 2021, listed by ethnicity, race, and sex.

Race or Ethnic Group

% of Deaths

American Indian or Alaska Native

15.5

Asian

18.6

Black (Non-Hispanic)

22.6

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

18.3

White (Non-Hispanic)

18.0

Hispanic

11.9

All

17.4

Americans at risk for heart disease

High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease.

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

What CDC is doing

Resources

Print
Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; About the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
  1. National Center for Health Statistics. Multiple Cause of Death 2018–2023 on CDC WONDER Database. Accessed February 1, 2025. https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd.html
  2. All costs are unpublished National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute tabulation using the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) (average annual 2019–2020) as published in Tables 28-1 and 28-2 in the 2025 AHA Statistical Summary.
  3. Tsao CW, Aday AW, Almarzooq ZI, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2023 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2023;147:e93–e621.