Cardiovascular Disease Statistics

• More than 70 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) have some form of cardiovascular disease (high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke being the most common), which is responsible for more than six million hospitalizations each year.
   
• Cardiovascular disease accounts for nearly 40 percent of deaths each year. Heart disease and stroke are the first and third most common causes of death, respectively.
   
• In 2005, the cost of heart disease and stroke in the United States was projected to exceed $394 billion: $242 billion for healthcare expenditures and $152 billion for lost productivity from death and disability.
   
• Based on the 2001 cardiovascular disease statistics, the cost of hospitalization for related problems among Medicare beneficiaries topped $29 billion.
   
• In 2005, $60 billion in healthcare spending was attributed to high blood pressure.
   

• In 2004, the total number of adults in the United States living with heart disease was 24.7 million. This represented 11.5 percent of the population.
   
• Based on the 2001 statistics on cardiovascular disease, 4.4 million people were hospitalized because of heart disease, with an average hospital stay of 4.6 days.
   
• Heart disease is the number one cause of death. Based on 2003 data, 685,089 people died from this condition.