2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data

The 2024 AHA Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update — compiled from NVSS, NHANES, BRFSS, and other federal data systems — is the annual benchmark document for US cardiovascular epidemiology. The scale it documents is not easily absorbed: cardiovascular disease was the underlying cause of 931,578 deaths in the US in 2021, 48.6% of all US adults have some form of CVD, and CVD accounted for 12% of total US health expenditures in 2019–2020 — more than any major diagnostic group.

Coronary heart disease accounted for 40.3% of CVD deaths in 2021 — 375,476 people — while stroke accounted for 17.5% (162,890 deaths). Someone in the US has a myocardial infarction every 40 seconds. Stroke deaths increased 26.3% from 2011 to 2021. Sudden cardiac arrest survival to hospital discharge remains 9.3% for EMS-treated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, despite decades of public awareness efforts.

The racial and ethnic disparity data establish the concentrated burden: 59.0% of non-Hispanic Black females and 58.9% of non-Hispanic Black males had some form of CVD in 2017–2020 — the highest prevalence of any racial or ethnic group. The age-adjusted CVD death rate increased 4% year-over-year in the most recent data, reversing years of decline.

The direct and indirect costs totaled $422.3 billion in 2019–2020. CVD accounted for approximately 19.91 million global deaths in 2021 — 27% of all deaths worldwide. Heart disease and stroke together exceed all cancer deaths combined in the US.

We rate the evidence strong. The 2024 AHA Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics annual report — compiled from the most authoritative national surveillance systems — is the primary reference for US cardiovascular burden data and the standard citation for epidemiological context in cardiovascular research and policy.