Heart disease, fueled by ongoing increases in the number of people who have high blood pressure, obesity and other major risk factors, continues to kill more people in the US than any other cause.
Heart disease remains the number-one cause of death because many of the risk factors contributing to it remain on the rise, according to 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data from the American Heart Association (AHA). The annual update, published January 27 in Circulation, the AHA’s peer-reviewed flagship journal, presents the latest findings on cardiovascular health.
“Did you know that in the United States, someone dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds? Nearly 2,500 people in the United States die from cardiovascular disease every day. Those are alarming statistics to me—and they should be alarming for all of us because it is likely many among those whom we lose will be our friends and loved ones,” said Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA, the AHA’s volunteer president. “Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke, which remains the fifth leading cause of death. Together, they kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths—the second and third leading causes of death—combined.”
Startling heart disease statistics
According to the AHA’s 2025 statistical report, in 2022, the most recent year for which final data is available, the overall number of cardiovascular disease-related deaths in the US was 941,652, an increase of more than 10,000 from the 931,578 deaths that occurred in 2021. The age-adjusted death rate attributable to cardiovascular disease was 224.3 per 100,000 people, a slight decrease from the 233.3 per 100,000 reported in 2021.
The report indicates the overall number of cardiovascular-related deaths appears to be leveling out after a major uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the age-adjusted death rates dropped for all but one of the ten leading causes of death: kidney disease, the age-adjusted death rate of which increased by 1.5%.
“Kidney disease has actually been on the rise over the past decade. In our report, we noted a significant increase in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease among Medicare beneficiaries from 9.2% in 2011 to 14.2% in 2021. Additionally, the global prevalence of kidney disease has increased more than 27% in relative terms since 2010,” said the chair of AHA’s statistical update writing committee, Seth S. Martin, MD, MHS, FAHA, a professor of medicine and cardiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
“The reason this is important is that, first, cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to kidney disease. Second, the risk factors of these diseases are closely interrelated. These include high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes—all health conditions that are rising substantially across the United States and the world,” Martin continued.
The signs of metabolic syndrome
According to the AHA’s 2025 Statistics Update:
- Nearly 47% of US adults have high blood pressure.
- More than 72% of US adults have an unhealthy weight (currently defined as body mass index ≥25)
- Nearly 42% of US adults have obesity (currently defined as body mass index ≥30).
- More than half of US adults (57%) have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
In a 2023 presidential advisory and scientific statement, the AHA recognized cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome as a health disorder due to the risk factor connections among heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and obesity, that lead to poor health outcomes.
In the editorial accompanying the 2025 Statistics Update, AHA volunteer Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MSc, MS, FAHA, noted the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is projected to worsen over the coming decades.
“Although we have made a lot of progress against cardiovascular disease in the past few decades, there is a lot more work that remains to be done,” Kazi wrote. “If recent trends continue, hypertension and obesity will each affect more than 180 million US adults by 2050, whereas the prevalence of diabetes will climb to more than 80 million. And over the same time period, we expect to see a 300% increase in health care costs related to cardiovascular disease.”
Demographic breakdown
Prevalence rates for major risk factors vary widely across specific populations:
- For overall prevalence of obesity, Black women had the highest rate at 57.9%, compared to the lowest rate of 14.5% among Asian women.
- For overall prevalence of diabetes, Hispanic men had the highest rate at 14.5%, compared to the lowest rate of 7.7% among white women.
- For overall prevalence of high blood pressure, Black women had the highest rate at 58.4%, compared to the lowest rate of 35.3% among Hispanic women.
The prevalence of these risk factors, obesity in particular, is also growing among young people and globally:
- As many as 40% of US children have an unhealthy weight (body mass index ≥85th percentile), with 20% having obesity (body mass index ≥95th percentile).
- Nearly 60% of adults globally have an unhealthy weight.
Some good news….
One positive trend “has been a reduction in the rates of high cholesterol. That’s likely thanks, in part, to increased awareness about the dietary and lifestyle factors that impact cholesterol levels, along with the availability of medications and better clinical control,” Churchwell said, further noting that new medications for controlling this factor are in development.
However, Kazi and Churchwell both warn that the solution to saving lives will need to be much broader than medical intervention.
“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.”
Early intervention is key
“Certainly, any medical or clinical therapy that can treat the risk factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease is essential. More importantly, we need to stop these risk factors in their tracks and keep people healthy throughout their lifespan. That will only be possible with a strong emphasis on early prevention and equitable health access for all,” said Churchwell.
