In 2020, heart disease was responsible for nearly 196,700 deaths in the twelve-state Southeastern U.S. region.  Relative to the size of its population, the number of heart disease deaths in the U.S. Southeast per 100,000 population was about 8.7% above the national average in 2020.  While the region as a whole compared negatively to the national heart disease death rate, most of the unfavorable results were concentrated in counties in the region's rural and small metropolitan areas. In rural areas and smaller population centers in the Southeast, counties recorded heart disease death rates in 2020 that were significantly worse than the national average.  A closer examination of data from the National Center for Health Statistics provides the following details about urban vs. rural heart disease death rates in the Southeastern U.S.:

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

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	28,339	15,659,372	181.0
Large Fringe Metro	40,115	21,574,094	185.9
Medium Metro	55,277	23,618,936	234.0
Small Metro	25,345	9,583,292	264.5
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	24,168	8,121,872	297.6
NonCore (Nonmetro)	23,430	7,008,219	334.3
Region	196,674	85,565,785	229.9
Nationally	696,962	329,484,123	211.5

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

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 30, 2023