In 2020 there were nearly 96,200 deaths in the six-state Far Western U.S. region that were attributable to heart disease.  Relative to the size of its population, the number of heart disease deaths per 100,000 population in the Far West was 19.1% below the national average in 2020.  While the region as a whole compared favorably to the national heart disease death rate, most of the better results were concentrated in counties in the region's medium-sized to large metropolitan areas. In rural areas and smaller population centers in the Far West, counties recorded heart disease death rates in 2020 that were materially higher than in the whole region or the nation.  A closer review of data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides the following details about urban vs. rural heart disease death rates in the Far Western U.S.:

Urban vs. Rural Heart Disease Death Rates in the Far Western U.S.

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	50,688	30,332,613	167.1
Large Fringe Metro	13,502	8,675,719	155.6
Medium Metro	19,067	11,295,695	168.8
Small Metro	6,269	3,184,983	196.8
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	5,557	2,325,131	239.0
NonCore (Nonmetro)	1,733	756,133	229.2
Region	96,816	56,570,274	171.1
Nationally	696,962	329,484,123	211.5

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington

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 January 21, 2023