Skip to content

CVD Causes & Risks

Different cardiovascular conditions account for different rates of mortality and morbidity. Risk factors such as diet, smoking, and air pollution can have a significant impact on people’s cardiovascular health. Filter by measure, age, unit, sex, and year to show breakdowns of CVD by condition and by risk factor. This data can support the development of effective and sustainable treatment and prevention strategies.

Causes

Cardiovascular diseases breakdown in 2021
(Age-standardized, male and female)

No data available for chosen filters

Click on an item in the chart legend to toggle visibility

Sources

Cardiovascular Disease Data

Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

Cardiovascular Disease Data

Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

Exercise

Find the rate of CVD deaths due to smoking among women of all ages worldwide in 1990, then compare it to the same rate in 2019. After looking up the same numbers for men, you will see that over the past 30 years, rates of CVD deaths due to smoking dropped among both men and women. Which sex experienced the largest decrease in CVD death rate?

Question mark icon

Did you know?

Out of all CVD conditions, ischemic heart disease caused the greatest number of deaths worldwide in 2019—accounting for 9.1 million (or nearly 50%) of the total 18.6 million CVD deaths. That same year, dietary risks constituted the largest risk factor, leading to almost 4.9 million CVD deaths.

*Risk rates and numbers do not account for interaction between multiple risks, so they should not be interpreted as mutually exclusive.

Explore more

Trends

What patterns have emerged for other cardiovascular diseases over the past two decades?

Learn more

Global Impact

How significant have these shifts been since 1990? Where are we making progress in preventing CVD and where should efforts be doubled?

View trends data
With the support of
  • © World Heart Federation 2026