Heart Attack and Angina Statistics

Final 2005 statistics for the United States show that coronary heart disease (CHD) is the single leading cause of death in America. CHD causes heart attack and angina.

• Mortality — 445,687 deaths in the United States in 2005 (about one of every five deaths).
• Incidence — 1,260,000 new and recurrent coronary attacks per year. (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities [ARIC] Study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). About 37 percent of people who experience a coronary attack in a given year die from it.
• Prevalence — 16,800,000 victims of angina (chest pain due to coronary heart disease), heart attack and other forms of coronary heart disease are still living (8,700,000 males and 8,100,000 females).
• From 1995 to 2005 the death rate from coronary heart disease declined 34 percent, but the actual number of deaths declined only 19 percent.
• Estimates are that 9,800,000 people in the United States suffer from angina.
• An estimated 500,000 new cases of stable angina occur each year. (Framingham Heart Study, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
• The estimated age-adjusted prevalence of angina in women age 20 and older was 4.1 percent for non-Hispanic white women, 6.7 percent for non-Hispanic black women and 4.5 percent for Mexican-American women. Rates for men in these three groups were 4.1, 4.4 and 3.5 percent, respectively.*
• Among adults in the United States age 20 and older, the estimated age-adjusted prevalence of coronary heart disease for non-Hispanic whites is 8.8 percent for men and 9.0 percent for women; for non-Hispanic blacks, 9.6 percent for men and 7.8 percent for women; and for Mexican-Americans, 5.4 percent for men and 6.3 percent for women.*

*Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2005–06), National Center for Health Statistics and NHLBI.