Heart Disease Still the Leading Cause of U.S. Deaths

Advances in medical treatment for cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in the U.S., have helped patients live longer. But a new report finds that risk factors that lead to heart disease are still so prevalent that, on average, someone dies from heart disease or stroke every 34 seconds. 

Increased rates of high blood pressure, obesity, and other chronic health issues are helping maintain cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death among Americans, according to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update. 

Dr. Keith Churchwell, M.D., president of the American Heart Association, said it’s going to be difficult to lower the numbers of heart disease and stroke fatalities because key factors are heading in the wrong direction. 

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“Nearly 2,500 people in the U.S. die from cardiovascular disease every day. Those are alarming statistics to me – and they should be alarming for all of us because it’s likely many among those whom we lose will be our friends and loved ones,” Churchwell said in a statement. 

“Too Many People Are Dying”

“Those are alarming statistics to me – and they should be alarming for all of us because it’s likely many among those whom we lose will be our friends and loved ones,” said Churchwell, an associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and an adjunct associate professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke which remains the fifth-leading cause of death,” he said. “Together, they kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths — the number-two  and number-three causes of death — combined.”

The data isn’t encouraging. In 2020, approximately 41.9% of U.S. adults were obese, 6.7% had high blood pressure, and 14.1% had diabetes, according to the report. Unless these trends change, hypertension and obesity will affect more than 180 million U.S. adults by 2050 and more than 80 million Americans will have diabetes.

Dr. Dhruv S. Kazi, an associate professor at Harvard University Medical School, said the diagnosis of heart disease isn’t necessarily a death sentence. 

“[It] is important to acknowledge that, although cardiovascular disease affects us all, it doesn’t affect us all equally,” said Kazi, AHA’s vice-chair of the advisory writing group that completed the organization’s 2024 presidential advisories on heart disease and stroke.  “For instance, there is wide variation in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure by sex and race/ethnicity.” 

For example, Black women had the highest rate of high blood pressure at just over 58% compared to the lowest rate of 35% among Hispanic women. Black women also had the highest rate of obesity at around 58%, compared to the lowest rate of 14.5% among Asian women. 

Meanwhile, Hispanic men had the highest rate of diabetes at 14% compared to the lowest rate of just under 8%  among white women.

Black men were found to have a higher rate of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and stroke than white men. But Black men have lower rates of high cholesterol than white men. Black women were found to have similar patterns of these disease factors. 

Risk Factors Are Linked

America’s children haven’t been spared: the AHA report found that 40% of children have an unhealthy weight, and one in five children and adolescents have been diagnosed with obesity. While Latino children have the highest levels of obesity, Black children have the highest rates of hypertension and diabetes of any racial demographic. 

AHA also found increased rates of kidney disease among Americans over the past decade. 

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“The reason this is important is that, first, cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to kidney disease,” said Dr. Seth S. Martin, a cardiologist and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“Second, the risk factors of these diseases are closely interrelated,” said Martin, chair of AHA’s statistical update writing committee. The risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes – all health conditions that are rising substantially across the U.S. and the world.” 

The report found a significant increase in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease among Medicare beneficiaries, who are predominantly older than age 65. The rate of kidney disease rose from 9.2% in 2011 to 14.2% in 2021.

“The disparities in risk and outcomes call for tailored interventions among high-risk populations,” Kazi said. “Simply discovering breakthrough therapies isn’t going to be enough – we have to ensure that these therapies are accessible and affordable to people who need them most.”

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