Our heart disease facts
Cardiovascular disease
is an umbrella term for all diseases of the heart and circulation,
including heart disease, stroke, heart failure and congenital heart
disease.
Collectively, heart and circulatory diseases
cause more than a quarter of all deaths in
the UK, accounting for more than 159,000 deaths each year. The
cost of premature death, lost productivity, hospital treatment and
prescriptions is estimated at £19 billion.
- Around one in six men and one in nine women die from
heart disease.
- CHD is responsible for almost 74,000 deaths in the UK
each year, an average of 200
people each day.
- More than 25,000 people under the age of 75 in the UK die from
CHD each year.
- There are nearly 2.3 million people living with heart
disease in the UK.
- There are nearly 1.4 million men and almost 900,000
women with CHD in the UK.
- Death rates from heart disease are highest in Scotland and
northern England and lowest in southern England.
- The UK spends nearly £2 billion each year on the
healthcare costs of treating heart disease.
- Most deaths from heart disease are caused by a heart
attack.
- There are around 103,000 heart attacks in the
UK each year.
- Around 50,000 men and 32,000 women in England
suffer a heart attack each year.
- We estimate there are 900,000 men
and more than 400,000 women living in the UK who have had a
heart attack. More than 750,000 of these are under the age of
75.
- In Scotland, between 2000 and 2009, the
number of heart attacks decreased by around 25 per cent in both men
and women, but is still much
higher than England's rate.
- Every seven minutes someone dies of a heart
attack in the UK.
- One in three people who have a heart attack
die before reaching hospital.
- Over 750,000 people are living with heart failure in the
UK.
- We estimate there are more than 25,000 new
cases of heart failure in the UK each year.
- Incidence of heart failure is highest in
Northern Ireland and lowest in England for both men and women.
- Stroke causes more than 42,000 deaths in the UK each
year.
- There are approximately 152,000 strokes in the UK each
year.
- In England and Scotland, stroke incidence
rates are about 25 per cent higher in men than women.
- Around 57,000 men and 68,000 women in England
suffer a stroke every year.
- We estimate nearly 1.2 million people living
in the UK have had a stroke - almost 650,000 men and 550,000 women.
Around 700,000 of these people are under the age of 75.
- The prevalence of smoking among adults is lower in England
(20%) than in Northern Ireland (24%), Scotland (25%) and Wales
(25%).
- Smoking increases the risk of heart disease
and a study of British doctors found smokers had
around a 60 per cent greater chance of dying from heart disease
than non smokers.
- More than a quarter of adults in England are
obese.
- Around 30 per cent of boys and girls aged 2
to 15 in England and Scotland are overweight or obese.
- Less than one third of men and women
currently eat the recommended five portions of fruit and veg per
day in Britain.
- Only around one in five boys and girls
aged 5 to 15 consume the recommended amount of fruit and veg.
- More than a third of men and over a quarter
of women regularly exceed the government recommended level of
alcohol intake.
- Around one in three adults in England and
Scotland have high blood pressure and nearly half of them are not
receiving treatment for the condition.
- Around six in ten adults in England have
blood cholesterol levels of 5mmol/l or above.
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You can also download any of
our heart statistics.