Heart disease accounted for almost 697,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2020. making it the nation's leading cause of death.  In the four-state Southwestern U.S., there were more than 80,400 heart disease deaths that year.   Consistent with a pattern seen nationally, the heart disease death rate for women in the region was lower than it was for men.  That said, in 2020 the heart disease death rate in the Southwestern U.S. for each gender was below the national average for the respective gender.  That result was consistent with the fact that in 2020 the Southwestern U.S. had the nation's third-lowest regional heart disease death rate. A closer examination of federal government statistical data reveals the following about male vs. female heart disease death rates in the Southwestern U.S.:

Male vs. Female Heart Disease Death Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Regionwide	80,454	42,869,262	187.7
Male	45,507	21,280,617	213.8
Female	34,947	21,588,645	161.9
Nationwide	696,962	329,484,123	211.5
Male	382,776	162,256,202	235.9
Female	314,186	167,227,921	187.9

(*) number of heart disease deaths per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

States in Region:  Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on March 25, 2023

In the five-state Rocky Mountain region of the U.S., drug-induced causes, mostly overdoses, accounted for 2,765 deaths in 2020.  Relative to population size, at 22.0 deaths per 100,000 population, the drug-induced death rate in the region was almost 25% below the national average.  Statistically, this gave the Rocky Mountain region the third-lowest regional drug-induced death rate in the U.S. in 2020.  In a pattern seen elsewhere in the U.S., the drug-induced death rate in the region's largest urban population centers ran noticeably higher than in its smaller metro and rural populations.  This is in contrast to the all-cause death rate, which typically runs lower in larger metro areas than in smaller metro and rural populations.  A deeper dive into data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following details about urban vs. rural drug-induced death rates in the Rocky Mountain region:

Urban vs. Rural Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Rocky Mountain Region

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	586	1,901,055	30.8
Large Fringe Metro	532	2,330,205	22.8
Medium Metro	818	3,900,314	21.0
Small Metro	356	1,669,221	21.3
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	262	1,616,653	16.2
NonCore (Nonmetro)	211	1,129,968	18.7
Region	2,765	12,547,416	22.0
Nationally	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

(*) number of drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming

See the 2013 NCHS Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for additional information on population categories, including a map of which U.S. counties fall in which categories.

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on March 25, 2023

Medicare Rehabilitation Hospital Beds by Region

Serving the inpatient rehabilitation care needs of over 62 million Americans having Medicare Part A insurance coverage, rehabilitation hospitals are an important part of Medicare's institutional provider network.  As of 2020, there were over 310 rehabilitation hospitals, with over 19,400 beds, that were participating in the Medicare program.  Here is a breakdown of Medicare rehabilitation hospital beds by region (to see state-level data, follow the "region" links in the table below):

Region	# Part A Enrollees		# Hospitals	# Beds
Far West	9,495,673		17	1,215
Great Lakes	9,196,909		31	2,113
Great Plains	4,142,384		20	1,187
Mid-East	9,405,082		32	2,752
New England	3,068,210		11	1,106
Rocky Mountain	2,039,128		11	566
Southeast	17,048,200		105	5,838
Southwest	6,815,787		84	4,601
U.S. Territories	1,287,380		3	103
National	62,498,751		314	19,481

Source:  CMS Program Statistics, Table: MDCR PROVIDERS 4. Medicare Providers:  Number of Medicare Certified Hospitals and Skilled Nursing Facilities, and Number of Beds, by State, Territories, Possessions, and Other, the Calendar Year 2020