Ten States with the Highest Heart Disease Death Rates

Approximately 697,000 deaths in the U.S. were attributed to heart disease in 2020.  At 211.5 deaths per 100,000 population, heart disease was the leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, accounting for about 21% of all deaths in the U.S. that year.  At the state level, there was much disparity in the incidence of heart disease deaths.  In the ten states with the worst incidence of heart disease deaths, the death rate ranged from 22% to 42% higher than the national average.  A closer review of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics revealed the following details about the ten states with the highest heart disease death rates in 2020:

State/Deaths	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Alabama	14,739	4,921,532	299.5
Mississippi	8,809	2,966,786	296.9
Oklahoma	11,758	3,980,783	295.4
West Virginia	5,123	1,784,787	287.0
Arkansas	8,621	3,030,522	284.5
Michigan	27,127	9,966,555	272.2
Louisiana	12,255	4,645,318	263.8
Ohio	30,547	11,693,217	261.2
Tennessee	17,943	6,886,834	260.5
Missouri	15,934	6,151,548	259.0
Total	152,856	56,027,882	272.8
U.S.	696,962	329,484,123	211.5

(*) 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 1999-2020 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 December 5, 2022

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Regional Heart Disease Death Rates in the U.S.