Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts

Heart, stroke and vascular disease (HSVD) – also known as cardiovascular disease (CVD) – is a broad term that describes the many different diseases and conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. 

Coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and heart failure are common forms of CVD. Other forms include atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, rheumatic heart disease, and congenital heart disease.

Key facts

• CVD has a substantial health and economic impact in Australia. It accounted for almost 12% of total disease burden and around 1 in 4 deaths in 2024, and an estimated 156 acute coronary events per day in 2023. In 2023–24, CVD contributed 9.4% of health system spending ($16.9 billion), with almost three-quarters spent on hospital services. One in 3 Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescriptions were for CVD medicines in 2024–25.
• The impact of CVD substantially increases with age. One in 2 CVD deaths were among those aged 85 and over in 2024, and 56% of stroke events were among those aged 75 years and over in 2023. In 2023–24, health system spending peaked among males aged 65–74 years and females aged 75–84 years.
• Declining CVD hospitalisation and death rates reflect major public health improvements with advancements in both prevention and treatment. After adjusting for age, CVD death rates declined by around 80% for both males and females between 1980 and 2024. 
• CVD encompasses a range of conditions, and while overall hospitalisation and death rates have declined over time, some subtypes, including atrial fibrillation and acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), show increasing hospitalisation and death rates. 
• CVD is not evenly distributed across the population, with greater burden and impact among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (First Nations), people living in lower socioeconomic areas, and those living in Remote and very remote areas. For some conditions, including heart failure and cardiomyopathy and ARF and RHD, geographic disparities were greater among females than males.

For more information, see: 

• What is heart, stroke and vascular disease?
• Risk factors for heart, stroke and vascular disease.

How common is heart, stroke and vascular disease?

An estimated 1.3 million Australians aged 18 and over (6.4% of the adult population) were living with one or more conditions related to heart, stroke and vascular disease (HSVD), based on self-reported data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2022–24 National Health Measures Survey. This includes 593,000 adults (3.0% of the adult population) who reported having coronary heart disease (including angina and heart attack).

In 2022–24, CVD was more commonly reported by men than women (7.3% and 5.5%, respectively) and increased with age, affecting around 1 in 4 (26%) adults aged 75 and over (AIHW analysis of ABS 2025a). 

For more information, see How many Australians are living with heart, stroke and vascular disease?

Acute coronary events

There are no national data sources on the number of new cases of CHD. However, a proxy measure can be used as an estimate – the number of acute coronary events, which includes heart attack and unstable angina (AIHW 2022).

In 2023, there were an estimated 57,100 acute coronary events among people aged 25 and over – equivalent to 156 events every day. Rates were highest among those aged 85 years and over (1,600 per 100,000 population). 

After adjusting for age, rates of acute coronary events:

• were 2.2 times as high in men as women
• fell by 64% for women and 60% for men between 2001 and 2023 (Figure 1).

For more information, see Acute coronary events.

Stroke

In 2022, an estimated 425,000 Australians (1.7% of the population) had experienced a stroke at some time in their lives, based on self-reported data from the ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (ABS 2024).

The prevalence of stroke in 2022 was:

• 1.1 times as high among males as females, after adjusting for age
• more common in older age groups, with 71% occurring in people aged 65 and over.

In 2023, there were an estimated 41,100 stroke events in Australia – around 113 every day. The rate of stroke events:

• was 1.4 times as high among males as females, after adjusting for age
• increased with age, being 5.5 times as high among people aged 85 and over as those aged 65–74
• fell by 30% between 2001 and 2023, after adjusting for age.

For more information, see Stroke.

Heart failure

An estimated 146,000 people aged 18 and over (0.7% of the adult population) had heart failure in 2022–24, based on self-reported data from the ABS National Health Measures Survey. Heart failure was more commonly reported by men (0.9%) than women (0.6%). The prevalence of heart failure increases with age, affecting around 3.4% of adults aged 75 and over in 2022–24 (AIHW analysis of ABS 2025a). 

Using self-reported data underestimates the true burden of heart failure, as early stages are only mildly symptomatic, and many cases are undiagnosed. A 2016 review of studies reported the prevalence of heart failure in the Australian population as ranging between 1.0% and 2.0% (Sahle et al. 2016).

For more information, see Heart failure and cardiomyopathy.

Impact

Burden of disease, expenditure and deaths are 3 key measures of the impact of HSVD on the Australian population.

Burden of disease

Burden of disease refers to the quantified impact of living with and dying prematurely from a disease or injury and is measured using disability-adjusted life years (DALY). One DALY is equivalent to one year of healthy life lost.

In 2024, Australians lost an estimated 685,000 years of healthy life due to CVD (25 DALY per 1,000 population). CVD accounted for almost 12% of the total burden of disease (14% males, 10% females), ranking fourth behind cancer, mental and substance use disorders, and musculoskeletal conditions.

Coronary heart disease was the leading single cause of burden for males, and sixth leading single cause for females in 2024.

After adjusting for age, the rate of burden from CVD fell by 47% between 2003 and 2024 (AIHW 2024).

Expenditure

In 2023–24, an estimated 9.4% of health system spending on disease and injury in Australia ($16.9 billion) was attributed to CVD. 

Of the $16.9 billion: 

• almost three-quarters (74%, or $12.5 billion) was spent on hospital services
• 14% ($2.4 billion) was spent on non-hospital medical services (largely primary care)  
• 12% ($2.0 billion) was spent on prescription medicines dispensed through the PBS (AIHW 2025).

Deaths

In 2024, CVD was the underlying cause of 42,300 deaths (23% of all deaths), a rate of 156 per 100,000 population. The proportion of CVD deaths (as the underlying cause of death) by subtype in 2024 was:

• coronary heart disease (38%)
• stroke (19%)
• heart failure and cardiomyopathy (12%)
• hypertensive disease (6.8%)
• atrial fibrillation (5.8%)
• peripheral arterial disease (4.4%)
• rheumatic heart disease (0.9%).

In 2024, CVD death rates:

• were 1.5 times as high among males as females, after adjusting for age
• increased with age, with half (50%) occurring in persons aged 85 and over.

After adjusting for age, the CVD death rate has declined by around 80% for both males and females between 1980 and 2024 (Figure 2). This downward trend has been driven by major public health improvements with advancements in both prevention and treatment.

For more information, see: 

• Impacts
• Deaths.

Treatment and management

Primary care

Primary health care professionals, including general practitioners (GP), are often the first point of care for people who have non-acute CVD, and play an important role in risk assessment and prevention, diagnosis, early intervention, and ongoing management.

In a 2020–21 survey of GP practices, high blood pressure (hypertension) was the single most common condition recorded for patients (6.0%). Cardiovascular medicines were the largest proportion of total prescriptions ordered by GPs for patients (32%) (NPS MedicineWise 2022).

In 2024–25, around 238,000 Heart Health Checks were processed by Medicare (48% males and 52% females). Heart Health Checks were most commonly completed for people aged 55–64 (2,300 per 100,000 population) and 65–74 (2,400 per 100,000 population) (Services Australia 2025).

The lack of national, comparable and reportable data on primary health care activity and outcomes impacts the ability to examine the impact of GP management on CVD outcomes in Australia. For more information, see Data gaps and opportunities.

Medicines

Almost 113 million PBS prescriptions for cardiovascular system medicines were dispensed to the Australian community in 2024–25. These comprised 34% of total PBS prescriptions (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2026). Around two-thirds (69%, or 78 million) of these prescriptions were PBS-subsidised, with the remainder being under co-payment.

Rosuvastatin (16.3 million) and atorvastatin (11.3 million), both lipid-modifying medicines, and perindopril (6.4 million), a blood pressure-lowering medicine, were among the most commonly supplied PBS medicines in 2024–25.

In 2022, among people who self-reported heart, stroke and vascular disease in the ABS National Health Survey, 90% had been dispensed a cardiovascular system drug in the 6 months pre- or post-survey. Use of cardiovascular drugs increased substantially with increasing age (AIHW analysis of ABS 2024a). 

Emergency department presentations

In 2024–25, there were 349,000 presentations to hospital emergency departments with a principal diagnosis of CVD – a rate of 1,300 presentations per 100,000 population.

• 18,500 (5.3%) were triaged as ‘resuscitation’ and needed immediate care, 158,000 (45%) as ‘emergency’ (should be seen within 10 minutes), 129,000 (37%) as ‘urgent’ (within 30 minutes), 39,200 (11%) as ‘semi-urgent’ (within 60 minutes) and 4,100 (1.2%) as ‘non-urgent’ (within 120 minutes).
• 208,000 (60%) were subsequently admitted to the hospital they presented to, 113,000 (32%) departed without being admitted or referred, and 20,800 (6.0%) were referred to another hospital for admission.

Hospitalisations

In 2023–24, CVD was recorded as the principal diagnosis of around 634,000 hospitalisations – 5.0% of all hospitalisations in Australia.

CHD was the most common principal diagnosis among CVD hospitalisations (25%), followed by atrial fibrillation (14%), stroke (12%), heart failure and cardiomyopathy (11%), peripheral arterial disease (5.4%), hypertensive disease (2.7%) and rheumatic heart disease (1.0%).

After adjusting for age, rates of hospitalisation with CVD as the principal diagnosis were 1.6 times as high for males compared with females.

The age-standardised rate of acute care CVD hospitalisations declined by 19% between 2000–01 and 2023–24.

Procedures

CVD-related diagnostic or treatment procedures performed on hospital patients in 2023–24 included:

• 143,000 coronary angiographies (96,000 males, 47,300 females)
• 58,400 echocardiographies (39,500 males, 18,900 females)
• 46,400 percutaneous coronary interventions (34,600 males, 11,700 females)
• 21,700 pacemaker insertions (13,300 males, 8,500 females)
• 12,600 coronary artery bypass grafts (10,500 males, 2,100 females)
• 14,700 heart valve repair or replacement procedures (9,400 males, 5,300 females)
• 4,100 cardiac defibrillator implants (3,200 males, 923 females)
• 1,800 carotid endarterectomy procedures (1,400 males, 470 females)
• 121 heart transplants (97 males, 24 females).

For more information, see Treatment and management.

Variation by priority population groups

The impact of HSVD varies between population groups.

Rates of prevalence, hospitalisation, mortality and burden of disease are, on average, greater among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, people living in lower socioeconomic areas, and people living in Remote and very remote areas (see Technical notes – Methods – Remoteness areas). For example:

• Among people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas, there were 10,600 deaths where CVD was the underlying cause in 2024. The CVD death rate for this group was 1.6 times as high as for people living in the highest socioeconomic areas, after adjusting for age.
• Among people living in Remote and very remote areas, there were 12,300 CVD hospitalisations in 2023–24. People living in these areas were 1.3 times as likely to be hospitalised for CVD as people living in Major cities, after adjusting for age.

First Nations people

• In 2022–23, around 39,300 First Nations adults (6.5%) reported living with HSVD based on data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (AIHW analysis of ABS 2025). First Nations adults were 1.4 times as likely as non-Indigenous adults to have HSVD, after adjusting for age (for more information see First Nations people).
• CVD accounted for 11% of total disease burden among First Nations people in 2022 (12% for males and 9.8% for females). The proportion attributed to fatal burden (85%) was higher than non-fatal burden (15%) (AIHW 2026).

Where do I go for more information?

For more information, see Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts.

For more on this topic, see Heart, stroke and vascular diseases.