The U.S. recorded almost 697,000 deaths in 2020 that were attributable to heart disease.  The five-state Great Lakes region accounted for nearly 113,000 of those heart disease deaths.   At  241.2 heart disease deaths per 100,000 population, the region had the worst regional heart disease death rate in 2020.  As seen throughout the U.S., the heart disease death rate for men in the Great Lakes region was worse than the female rate.  Moreover, in 2020 the heart disease death rate for both genders in the region was higher than the overall national average of 211.5 deaths per 100,000 population. A deeper examination of data from the National Center for Health Statistics offers the following details about male vs. female heart disease death rates in the Great Lakes region:

Male vs. Female Heart Disease Death Rates in the Great Lakes Region

	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Regionwide	112,944	46,834,910	241.2
Male	61,269	23,061,455	265.7
Female	51,675	23,773,455	217.4
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:  Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin

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 April 8, 2023