Heart failure affects millions of adults, but reported rates vary substantially by country, age, case definition and measurement method. The figures below distinguish diagnosed prevalence, hospitalization-defined disease, population mortality, patient outcomes, estimates and forecasts.
Key Heart Failure Statistics
The most broadly useful figures include:
- In the United States, nearly 6.7 million adults aged 20 or older had heart failure according to the 2024 CDC estimate.
- US heart failure prevalence is projected to reach 8.5 million adults by 2030.
- The estimated lifetime risk of heart failure rose from 19.0% in the 1965–1989 Framingham epoch to 23.7% in 1990–2014.
- Across studies published from 1990 through 2020, population prevalence ranged from 0.2% to 17.7% across 51 countries.
- In the 11-country CaReMe study, broad registered heart failure prevalence was 2.01% in the contemporary digital-health cohort.
- In South Korea, heart failure prevalence increased from 0.77% in 2002 to 2.58% in 2020.
- South Korea had 1,326,886 people with heart failure in 2020 in an estimate based on national health-insurance records.
- Korean heart failure prevalence in 2020 was 18.62% among people aged 80 or older.
- In CaReMe patients with recorded ejection fraction, 42.1% had preserved ejection fraction.
- Korean age-standardized heart failure incidence fell from 824 per 100,000 people in 2002 to 572 per 100,000 in 2020.
- Korean 2020 crude heart failure incidence reached 3,094 new cases per 100,000 people aged 80 or older.
- Heart failure was mentioned on 452,573 US death certificates in 2023.
- The systematic review found one-year heart failure case fatality ranging from 4% to 45% across studies.
- The European survey reported median in-hospital mortality of 8.0% among patients admitted with heart failure.
- Korean survival after heart failure diagnosis was 91% at 1 year and 54% at 15 years.
- In the CaReMe heart-failure cohort, 48.8% had ischemic heart disease.
- Korean patients with heart failure had 78.7% hypertension prevalence in 2020.
- The CDC reported estimated US national heart-failure costs of $30.7 billion in 2012.
Contents
- Heart failure prevalence and lifetime risk
- Heart failure data by age, sex and ejection fraction
- Heart failure incidence and hospitalization trends
- Heart failure mortality, survival and readmission outcomes
- Heart failure comorbidities and economic burden
Heart Failure Prevalence and Lifetime Risk
The CDC’s 2024 page reports that nearly 6.7 million US adults aged 20 years or older have heart failure. This is an estimate attributed by the CDC to the American Heart Association’s 2024 statistics, rather than a direct 2024 survey count; CDC, “About Heart Failure”.
The same US evidence base projects 8.5 million adults with heart failure by 2030. That is a forecast dependent on demographic and epidemiologic assumptions, not an observed count; Heart Failure Statistics 2024 Update.
Lifetime risk also changed across Framingham Study epochs:
| Measure | Earlier period | Later period |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated lifetime risk | 19.0% in 1965–1989 | 23.7% in 1990–2014 |
These are cohort estimates whose interpretation depends on follow-up and competing mortality. In a contemporary HFSA synthesis, approximately 33% of US adults without symptomatic heart failure were classified as at-risk Stage A, while 24%–34% were estimated to have pre-heart-failure Stage B; neither percentage is established symptomatic-heart-failure prevalence.
International results demonstrate why definitions matter. A systematic review of studies published from 1990 through 2020 found population prevalence estimates from 0.2% to 17.7% across 51 countries, with variation in age, setting, case definition and ascertainment; Prevalence, incidence and survival of heart failure: a systematic review.
In the contemporary 11-country CaReMe digital-health cohort, broad registered prevalence was 2.01%, compared with 1.05% under a strict definition based on a history of heart-failure hospitalization. The cohort included 629,624 patients with diagnosed heart failure, but that number does not represent all people with undiagnosed disease; Prevalence, outcomes and costs of a contemporary, multinational population with heart failure.
The European Heart Failure Survey reported a median prevalence of 1,937 patients per 100,000 population across European country reports. This is a median with an interquartile range, not a pooled individual-level estimate; Insights into the European heart failure epidemiology.
Heart Failure Data by Age, Sex and Ejection Fraction
South Korean national claims data show a marked age gradient. Prevalence rose from 0.06% at ages 0–9, 0.07% at 10–19 and 0.18% at 20–29, to 0.38% at 30–39, 0.87% at 40–49 and 2.02% at 50–59 in 2020.
| South Korea, 2020 | Heart failure prevalence |
|---|---|
| Ages 60–69 | 4.71% |
| Ages 70–79 | 10.57% |
| Age 80+ | 18.62% |
Overall prevalence increased from 0.77% in 2002 to 2.58% in 2020, and the estimated number of people with heart failure reached 1,326,886 in 2020. The 2020 prevalence was 2.55% in men and 2.62% in women, a small sex difference that should not be generalized globally; Heart Failure Statistics 2024 Update.
The CaReMe cohort also separated patients by recorded ejection fraction. Among 51,442 patients with recorded ejection fraction, 39.1% had reduced ejection fraction, 18.8% had mildly reduced ejection fraction and 42.1% had preserved ejection fraction.
The mean age of broad-definition CaReMe patients was 75.2 years, with a reported 95% confidence interval of 74.0–76.4 years. These figures describe diagnosed patients and the ejection-fraction percentages apply only to the recorded-ejection-fraction subset; Prevalence, outcomes and costs of a contemporary, multinational population with heart failure.
Heart Failure Incidence and Hospitalization Trends
In South Korea, crude heart-failure incidence increased from 482 new cases per 100,000 people in 2003 to 609 per 100,000 in 2020. Because crude rates are affected by population aging, age-standardized incidence provides a different view: it fell from 824 per 100,000 in 2002 to 572 per 100,000 in 2020, standardized to the 2018 resident population.
Sex-specific age-standardized incidence also declined. Among women it fell from 961 per 100,000 in 2003 to 564 per 100,000 in 2020, while among men it fell from 678 to 580 per 100,000 over the same period.
In 2020, crude incidence was 619 per 100,000 Korean men and 599 per 100,000 Korean women. Age-specific crude incidence was 615 per 100,000 at ages 50–59, 1,148 at 60–69, 2,084 at 70–79 and 3,094 at age 80 or older; Heart Failure Statistics 2024 Update.
Hospitalization measures depend strongly on whether heart failure was the primary or a secondary diagnosis:
| South Korea, 2020 | Hospitalizations per 100,000 people |
|---|---|
| All-cause hospitalization among patients with HF | 1,166 |
| HF as primary diagnosis | 74 |
| HF as primary or secondary diagnosis | 648 |
The all-cause figure uses the general population as denominator and includes any cause. Primary-only and primary-or-secondary claims are different measures and should not be treated as interchangeable.
The European survey reported a median heart-failure incidence of 3.9 new patients per 1,000 person-years, with an interquartile range of 3.1–6.5. Country definitions and available resources varied; Insights into the European heart failure epidemiology.
Heart Failure Mortality, Survival and Readmission Outcomes
Heart failure appeared on 452,573 US death certificates in 2023 and represented 14.6% of all causes of death in the CDC-reported death-certificate statistic. These are mention-of-death-certificate measures: heart failure may be listed as any cause, not necessarily the underlying cause; CDC, “About Heart Failure”.
Across studies published from 1990 through 2020, the systematic review found one-year case fatality from 4% to 45%, with an average of 33% overall and 24% in studies covering all adult ages. These review averages summarize heterogeneous studies and are not universal individual risks; Prevalence, incidence and survival of heart failure: a systematic review.
The European survey reported median in-hospital mortality of 8.0% among patients admitted with heart failure and median one-year all-cause mortality of 14.5%. The reported interquartile ranges were 4.9%–9.6% and 8.2%–21.6%, respectively; Insights into the European heart failure epidemiology.
South Korean population mortality rose from 3.0 per 100,000 in 2002 to 15.6 per 100,000 in 2020, while age-standardized mortality rose from 7.0 to 13.8 per 100,000. In 2020, population mortality was 21.5 per 100,000 women and 9.7 per 100,000 men; these are population rates, not mortality among diagnosed patients.
Among Korean patients with claims-defined heart failure, annual mortality was 5.8% in 2020. In the subgroup hospitalized with heart failure as the primary diagnosis, all-cause mortality was 16.0%, cardiovascular mortality was 9.3% and heart-failure mortality was 5.3% during the study-defined follow-up; Heart Failure Statistics 2024 Update.
Reported Korean survival after diagnosis was 91% at 1 year, 79% at 5 years, 66% at 10 years and 54% at 15 years. These longitudinal claims-linked estimates depend on cohort era and case definition.
Heart Failure Comorbidities and Economic Burden
The CaReMe cohort illustrates the clinical complexity surrounding heart failure. Among broad-definition patients, 48.8% had ischemic heart disease and 34.5% had diabetes; among 169,518 patients with recorded estimated glomerular filtration rate, 49% had stage III–V chronic kidney disease, defined as eGFR below 60 mL/min/1.73 m².
In South Korea in 2020, claims-defined comorbidity prevalence among patients with heart failure was:
| Comorbidity | Prevalence |
|---|---|
| Hypertension | 78.7% |
| Diabetes | 58.8% |
| Ischemic heart disease | 50.6% |
| Atrial fibrillation | 20.3% |
| Chronic kidney disease | 15.8% |
| Cerebral infarction | 14.5% |
These Korean percentages are claims-defined and should not be directly compared with the CaReMe recorded-subset estimates. CaReMe also reported its highest event rate for combined cardiorenal disease, at 19.3 events per 100 patient-years, while all-cause mortality occurred at 13.1 deaths per 100 patient-years; Prevalence, outcomes and costs of a contemporary, multinational population with heart failure.
Cost estimates differ in date, currency treatment and included services. The CDC reports estimated US national heart-failure costs of $30.7 billion in 2012, including health services, medicines and missed workdays; this is an older-dollar estimate, not a current annual total; CDC, “About Heart Failure”.
The Korean national study reported approximately $2.4 billion in total heart-failure healthcare costs in 2020, compared with approximately $0.15 billion in 2002. The source describes this as about 16 times higher, but the figures are nominal, study-reported costs and are not inflation-adjusted; Heart Failure Statistics 2024 Update.
The CaReMe cost figures came from six countries and up to five years of follow-up, so they do not establish a single worldwide cost. Across all datasets, the central comparison is between measures with different populations, definitions, periods and denominators rather than a single interchangeable heart-failure total.