Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US, claiming around one million lives in 2022- more than all cancers and accidents combined. Experts warn rising obesity, diabetes, and hypertension rates are fueling the crisis despite some progress in lowering cholesterol and smoking rates.
United States: American populations continue to experience heart disease as their leading cause of death while risk factors demonstrate increasing trends.
More about the news
In the annual American Heart Association Report 2025, Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, scientists disclosed updated information about heart disease.
According to the report released in the Circulation Journal of the American Heart Association on January 27, cardiovascular disease proves fatal for more Americans than any combination of cancer or accidental death.
The newest mortality data from 2022 shows heart disease-related conditions caused the deaths of 941,652 people, according to the annual report released by the American Heart Association. The death toll exceeded previous numbers by slightly more than 10,000 fatalities in 2022, Fox News reported.
What more are the experts stating?
Death rates adjusted for age showed a minor year-to-year decrease.
According to Dr. Bradley Serwer, a Maryland-based cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, an Ingenovis Health company that offers cardiovascular and anesthesiology services to hospitals, “Overall, we are seeing cardiovascular-related deaths leveling out compared to 2022,” Fox News reported.
“We are making some improvements in regard to the improved prevalence of hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) and lower incidence of smoking, but have lost ground in regard to diabetes, obesity, and hypertension,” as Serwer noted.
Keith Churchwell, M.D., the American Heart Association’s volunteer president, reports that heart disease causes one fatality every 34 seconds across the US, resulting in 2,500 daily deaths.
“Those are alarming statistics to me – and they should be alarming for all of us,” Churchwell added.
“Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke, which remains the fifth leading cause of death,” he continued.
Various risk factors involved
The report revealed data about various heart disease risk factors spreading across the population.
The report showed that “unhealthy weight” affects over 72 percent of American adults who have body mass index measurements of at least 25.
The obesity criteria (a body mass index of 30 or more) exists in 42 percent of this adult group.
More than half of United States adults (57 percent) demonstrate either type 2 diabetes or prediabetes categories, according to the report.
Furthermore, as American Heart Association volunteer Dhruv S. Kazi, M.D. added, “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,” Fox News reported.