AHA Report Reaffirms Cardiovascular Disease as Leading Cause of US Deaths

Keith Churchwell, MD

Credit: American Heart Association

An annual report from the American Heart Association (AHA) confirmed cardiovascular disease (CVD) as the leading cause of death in the United States, attributing its burden to the subsequent increase of risk factors linked to these diseases, including hypertension and obesity.¹

The AHA’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update reported the overall number of CVD-related deaths in the US at 941,652 in 2022, marking the most recent year with full data. This represented an increase of ≥10,000 from the 931,578 CVD deaths in 2021.

“Nearly 2500 people in the US die from CVD 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 our friends and loved ones,” said Keith Churchwell, MD, volunteer president of the AHA.² “Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke which remains the 5th leading cause of death. Together, they kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths – the #2 and #3 causes of death – combined.”

A 2023 AHA presidential advisory and scientific statement recognized cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome as a disorder, citing a link between poor patient outcomes and heart disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and obesity.³ According to this 2025 update, 47% of US adults experience high blood pressure, with more than 72% reporting unhealthy weight (body mass index [BMI], ≥25) and 42% reporting obesity (BMI ≥30). Meanwhile, more than half (57%) of US adults reported type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity.¹

Age-adjusted death rates attributed to CVD were 224.3 per 100,000 people in 2022, representing a slight decrease from 233.3 per 100,000 reported in 2021. Overall, CV-related deaths leveled out after an upswing during the COVID-19 pandemic, with drops in all but 1 of 10 leading causes of death. Age-adjusted death rates attributed to kidney disease rose 1.5% in this period, with a notable uptick in the prevalence of CKD among Medicare beneficiaries from 9.2% in 2011 to 14.2% in 2021.

“The reason this is important is that, first CVD is a major contributor to kidney disease. Second, the risk factors of these diseases are closely interrelated,” said Seth S. Martin, MD, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and chair of the AHA’s statistical update writing committee.² “These include high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes – all health conditions that are rising substantially across the US and the world.”

The report indicated inequalities in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension can vary by sex, race, and ethnicity. Black women reported the highest rate of prevalent obesity (57.9%) and high blood pressure (58.4%), while Hispanic men had the highest rate of diabetes (14.5%), in the 2025 update.

Obesity rates are also growing among young people in the US, with up to 40% of children reporting unhealthy weight (BMI, ≥85th percentile) and 20% experiencing obesity (BMI, ≥95th percentile). Excess weight was linked to as many as 1300 deaths per day in the US and lowers life expectancy by as much as 2.4 years, compared with healthy weight.

“The impact on lives lost is twice as high for women, and higher for Black adults than for white adults,” said Latha P. Palaniappan, MD, MS, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University and vice-chair of the statistical update writing committee.² “It’s alarming to note that excess weight now costs us even more lives than smoking – as smoking rates have actually fallen in recent years. Being overweight is the new smoking when it comes to health threats.”

In an accompanying editorial, Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MSc, MS, head of health economics and associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, cited projections pointing to the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors worsening in the coming decades, noting more work will be needed to lessen the rates of CVD in the US.⁴

“Although we have made a lot of progress against CVD in the past few decades, there is a lot more work that remains to be done,” Kazi stated.² “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 healthcare costs related to CVD.”

References

1. _{Martin SS, Aday AW, Allen NB, et al. 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data From the American Heart Association. Circulation. Published online January 27, 2025. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001303}
2. _{Heart disease remains leading cause of death as key health risk factors continue to rise. American Heart Association. January 27, 2025. Accessed January 30, 2025. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/heart-disease-remains-leading-cause-of-death-as-key-health-risk-factors-continue-to-rise.}
3. _{Ndumele CE, Rangaswami J, Chow SL, et al. Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association [published correction appears in Circulation. 2024 Mar 26;149(13):e1023. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001241]. Circulation. 2023;148(20):1606-1635. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001184}
4. _{Kazi DS. State of the Heart (and Brain) in 2025. Circulation. Published online January 27, 2025. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.073826}