FastStats: Heart Disease

The CDC NCHS FastStats Heart Disease page provides the most current mortality and healthcare utilization statistics for heart disease from validated federal surveillance systems: NHIS (health interview survey), NAMCS (physician office visits), NHAMCS (hospital ambulatory care), and NVSS (vital statistics). Data years range from 2019 to 2024 depending on the measure. Last reviewed September 19, 2025.

The mortality headline: 680,981 deaths from heart disease in the US in 2023, at a rate of 203.3 per 100,000 population. Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the country.

Healthcare utilization data establish the system burden. Coronary heart disease generated 13.0 million physician office visits in 2019 with a primary diagnosis of coronary atherosclerosis or chronic ischemic heart disease. An additional 6.9% of all physician office visits had CAD, ischemic heart disease, or prior MI noted in the medical record. In emergency departments, 6.5% of visits included a history of coronary artery disease, ischemic heart disease, or prior MI in the medical record — a utilization pattern reflecting both the prevalence of the disease and the downstream event rates in patients with established or unrecognized CAD.

The 5.0% of US adults who have ever been diagnosed with coronary heart disease (2024 NHIS data) is a recognized underestimate — it captures self-reported diagnosed disease, not subclinical disease detected by imaging. The gap between the 5% diagnosed with CHD and the much larger fraction with measurable atherosclerosis on coronary CT is the clinical opportunity that systematic early detection is designed to address.

We rate the evidence strong. The CDC NCHS FastStats Heart Disease page provides the most current federal surveillance data on heart disease mortality and healthcare utilization — the most current available from NCHS systems as of September 2025.