Heart disease accounted for nearly 197,000 deaths in the twelve-state Southeastern U.S. in 2020.  The region's heart disease death rate of 229.9 deaths per 100,000 population was 8.7% higher than the national average.  As a whole, the Southeastern U.S. had the third-worst regional heart disease death rate in the nation in 2020.  Among men in the Southeastern U.S., the heart disease death rate was nearly 11% higher than it was for men nationally.  Among women in the Southeast, the death rate from heart disease was about 6.3% above the national average for women.  A closer look into data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following about male vs. female heart disease death rates in the Southeastern U.S.:

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

	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Regionwide	196,674	85,565,785	229.9
Male	109,168	41,736,692	261.6
Female	87,506	43,829,093	199.7
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:  Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

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 1, 2023