Heart, stroke and vascular disease

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Contains key statistics and information about heart, stroke and vascular disease and its prevalence in Australia

Reference period
2017-18 financial year
Released
12/12/2018

Key statistics

  • 1.2 million Australians had heart disease.
  • Heart disease more common among males than females (5% compared with 4%).
  • 27% of all deaths in Australia attributed to diseases of the circulatory system.

Heart, stroke and vascular disease encompasses a range of circulatory conditions including angina, heart attack and stroke. Commonly, this group of conditions is referred to under the broader term of 'heart disease' and is often used interchangeably with the term 'cardiovascular disease'. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide[1]. In 2017, it was found that there were 43,447 deaths (27% of all deaths) in Australia attributable to diseases of the circulatory system[2] and there were more than 1.1 million hospitalisations in 2015-16 (11% of all hospitalisations) due to cardiovascular disease[3]. Heart disease is associated with lifestyle risk factors such as; smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, being inactive, being overweight, an unhealthy diet and depression[4].

Definitions

Who had heart disease in 2017-18?

The prevalence of heart disease amongst Australians was around one in twenty (4.8% or 1.2 million people) in 2017-18 and has remained fairly consistent over time. 

Heart disease has remained more common among males (5.4%) compared with females (4.2%) and over time, the gap does not appear to be narrowing. 

The proportion of people with heart disease generally increases with age. In 2017-18, the proportion of people with heart disease was less than 5% under 55 years of age, then steadily climbed to one in four (25.8%) Australians aged 75 years and over with heart disease in 2017-18. This however, was a decline from 2014-15 where 30.7% of adults aged 75 years and over had heart disease.

The prevalence of heart disease was similar for all age groups until age 64 years regardless of gender. For those aged 65 years and older, men had higher rates of heart disease compared to women for those aged 65-74 years (19.6% and 12.4% respectively) and age 75 years and over (31.5% and 20.4% respectively). 

Data downloads

Table 1: Summary health characteristics, 2001 to 2017-18 - Australia

Table 2: Summary health characteristics, 2017-18 - States and territories

Table 3: Long-term health conditions - Australia

Table 4: Long-term health conditions by population characteristics - Australia

Table 5: Selected current long-term conditions by health risk factors and health status - Australia

Table 19: Comorbidity of selected chronic conditions - Australia

Table 20: New South Wales

Table 21: Victoria

Table 22: Queensland

Table 23: South Australia

Table 24: Western Australia

Table 25: Tasmania

Table 26: Northern Territory

Table 27: Australian Capital Territory

Table 33: Small area estimates

Released 17/04/2020

Additional data cube with modelled small area estimates for persons with chronic health conditions by age for Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2) of usual residence have been added.

All data cubes

Endnotes

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 4364.0.55.001.

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