In the five-state Rocky Mountain region of the U.S., heart disease accounted for 19,063 deaths in 2020.  Relative to population size, at 151.9 deaths per 100,000 population, the heart disease death rate in the region was more than 28% below the national average.  Statistically, this gave the Rocky Mountain region the lowest regional heart disease death rate in the U.S. in 2020.  However, in a pattern seen elsewhere in the U.S., there was a wide disparity in the region between heart disease death rates in urban and rural populations.  Heart disease death rates in populations in the Rocky Mountain region's larger metro areas were materially lower than in smaller communities and rural areas of the region.  A deeper look at data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) yields the following details about urban vs. rural heart disease death rates in the Rocky Mountain region:

Urban vs. Rural Heart Disease Death Rates in the Rocky Mountain Region

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	2,448	1,901,055	128.8
Large Fringe Metro	2,892	2,330,205	124.1
Medium Metro	5,212	3,900,314	133.6
Small Metro	3,233	1,669,221	193.7
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	2,621	1,616,653	162.1
NonCore (Nonmetro)	2,657	1,129,968	235.1
Region	19,063	12,547,416	151.9
Nationally	696,962	329,484,123	211.5

(*) number of heart disease 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 February 18, 2023