Heart disease accounted for almost 697,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2020. making it the nation's leading cause of death.  In the four-state Southwestern U.S., there were more than 80,400 heart disease deaths that year.   Consistent with a pattern seen nationally, the heart disease death rate for women in the region was lower than it was for men.  That said, in 2020 the heart disease death rate in the Southwestern U.S. for each gender was below the national average for the respective gender.  That result was consistent with the fact that in 2020 the Southwestern U.S. had the nation's third-lowest regional heart disease death rate. A closer examination of federal government statistical data reveals the following about male vs. female heart disease death rates in the Southwestern U.S.:

Male vs. Female Heart Disease Death Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Regionwide	80,454	42,869,262	187.7
Male	45,507	21,280,617	213.8
Female	34,947	21,588,645	161.9
Nationwide	696,962	329,484,123	211.5
Male	382,776	162,256,202	235.9
Female	314,186	167,227,921	187.9

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

Report Period: 2020

States in Region:  Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas

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 March 25, 2023