According to 1994 estimates, 57,490,000 Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD):

• High blood pressure - 50,000,000.
• Coronary heart disease - 13,670,000.
• Stroke - 3,890,000
• Rheumatic heart disease - 1,380,000.

Cardiovascular diseases:

• Claimed 954,720 lives in 1994 (41.8 percent of all deaths).
• Other 1994 mortality: total cancer 536,860; accidents 90,140; HIV (AIDS)
  
• More than one sixth of all people killed by CVD are under age 65.
• 1993 death rates from CVD were 232.9 for white males and 343.3 for black males (47.4 percent higher); for white females 131.6 and for black females 222.6 (69.1 percent higher). (Death rates are per 100,000 population.)
• From 1984 to 1994, death rates from CVD declined 22.4 percent.
• Despite this decline in the death rate, in the same 10-year period, the actual number of deaths declined only 3 percent.

• Coronary heart disease, which is caused by atherosclerotic narrowing of the coronary arteries, is likely to produce angina pectoris, heart attack or both.
• Coronary heart disease caused 487,490 deaths in 1994 and is the leading cause of death in America today.

  13,670,000 people alive today have a history of heart attack, angina pectoris (chest pain) or both.

  This year as many as 1,500,000 Americans will have a new or recurrent heart attack--and about one third of them will die.

• At least 250,000 people a year die of heart attack within one hour of the onset of symptoms and before they reach a hospital.

  Based on the Framingham Heart Study, five percent of all heart attacks occur in people under age 40 and 45 percent occur in people under age 65.
  

  Studies show that the risk of death from heart disease is much greater for the least-educated than for the most-educated people.
  

• From 1984 to 1994 the death rate from heart attack declined 28.6 percent.
• In 1993, coronary heart disease death rates were 133 per 100,000 people for white males and 139.3 for black males (4.7 percent higher); and 63.8 for white females and 85.7 for black females (34.3 percent higher).
• In 1950 the death rate per 100,000 from heart attack was 226.4; in 1993 it had dropped to 103.4.

Mortality - The total number of deaths from a given disease in a population during a specific interval of time, usually a year.

Prevalence - The total number of cases of a given disease existing in a population at a specific point in time.

See American Heart Association for more information on Cardiovascular Disease Statistics.