Heart Disease Deaths in the Great Lakes Region

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the USA, accounting for more than 659,000 deaths in 2019, or approximately 23% of all deaths in the United States that year.  Advancements in medical knowledge have materially lowered the heart disease death rate over the past twenty years. By 2019 the death rate from heart disease had dropped to 200.8 deaths per 100,000 population, down from its 1999 level of 259.9 deaths per 100,000 population.  Unfortunately, the heart disease death rate in the U.S. has been creeping back up since the middle of the last decade.  While the five-state Great Lakes region has likewise seen its heart disease death rate trend downward in the past two decades, its experience has been less favorable than the nation as a whole. The region's 2019 death rate of 228.5 deaths per 100,000 population was only down about 18% from its 1999 level, in contrast to the nearly 23% decline at the national level.  A deeper examination of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, shows the following about the trend in heart disease deaths in the Great Lakes region:

Heart Disease Deaths in the Great Lakes Region

Area/Deaths	1999	2009	2019
IL	33,387	24,931	25,690
IN	16,661	13,509	14,555
MI	27,693	23,099	25,547
OH	33,192	25,453	29,160
WI	13,827	10,834	12,241
Region	124,760	97,826	107,193
U.S.	725,192	599,413	659,041
Area/Death Rate*	1999	2009	2019
IL	270.1	194.8	202.7
IN	275.6	209.1	216.2
MI	279.8	233.3	255.8
OH	292.8	220.8	249.5
WI	259.3	191.1	210.2
Region	277.4	211.0	228.5
U.S.	259.9	195.4	200.8

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

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on June 9, 2021