Women accounted for 314,186 out of the approximately 697,000 deaths in the U.S. that were attributed to heart disease in 2020.  At 187.9 deaths per 100,000 population, heart disease was the leading cause of death among women in the United States in 2020, accounting for about 19.5% of all female deaths in the U.S. that year.  At the state level, there was much disparity in the incidence of female heart disease deaths.  In the ten states with the worst incidence of heart disease deaths for women, the death rate ranged from 22% to 42% higher than the national average for women.  In nine of these states, the female heart disease death rate was higher than even the national male-only heart disease death rate of 235.9 deaths per 100,000 population.  A closer examination of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics revealed the following details about the ten states with the highest female heart disease death rates in 2020:

Ten States with the Highest Female Heart Disease Death Rates

State/Deaths	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Alabama	6,788	2,544,566	266.8
Mississippi	4,023	1,530,971	262.8
Oklahoma	5,216	2,009,602	259.6
Arkansas	3,909	1,543,666	253.2
West Virginia	2,250	900,511	249.9
Michigan	12,449	5,058,742	246.1
New York	23,651	9,946,279	237.8
Pennsylvania	15,490	6,516,212	237.7
Ohio	14,124	5,960,556	237.0
Missouri	7,192	3,133,825	229.5
Total	95,092	39,144,930	242.9
U.S. Female Only	314,186	167,227,921	187.9
U.S. Male Only	382,776	162,256,202	235.9
U.S. Total	696,962	329,484,123	211.5

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

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 24, 2023

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Female Heart Disease Death Rates in the U.S. by Region