Heart Disease Facts

The CDC Heart Disease Facts page is the US government’s primary public-facing summary of cardiovascular mortality data, updated from the National Vital Statistics System. The 2024 edition draws primarily from 2020–2023 data.

The core statistics: 919,032 people died from cardiovascular disease in the US in 2023 — accounting for 1 in every 3 deaths. Heart disease costs approximately $417.9 billion annually in health care services, medicines, and lost productivity. Someone dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. Coronary heart disease is the most common type — 371,506 deaths in 2022, with about 5% of US adults aged 20 and older having CAD at any given time.

Heart attack incidence data: 805,000 Americans have a heart attack each year. Of these, 605,000 are first heart attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Approximately one in five heart attacks are silent — damage occurs without the person being aware. The 40-second cadence of heart attacks in the US is not a rhetorical device; it is a surveillance statistic.

Racial and ethnic disparities are marked. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Hispanic, and White men. For women, it is leading for the same groups except Asian American and Pacific Islander women, where it falls to second (after cancer). Among non-Hispanic Black Americans, heart disease accounts for 22.6% of all deaths — the highest proportion of any group.

Notably, approximately 1 in 6 cardiovascular deaths in 2023 occurred in adults younger than 65 years old — documenting the premature mortality burden that is the central concern of cardiovascular prevention.

We rate the evidence strong. This CDC Heart Disease Facts fact sheet, compiled from the National Vital Statistics System, provides authoritative data on US cardiovascular mortality, CAD prevalence, heart attack incidence, and racial disparities in heart disease burden.