Overview

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes a range of conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. The most common and serious types of CVD include coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure. CVD remains a major health problem in Australia, despite declining mortality and hospitalisation rates.

Latest findings

Indigenous Australians had CVD hospitalisation and death rates that were over 50% higher than non-Indigenous Australians CVD hospitalisation rates were 30% higher among those living in Remote and very remote areas as those in Major Cities AF (principal diagnosis) hospitalisation rate was 1.5 times as high for males as for females, in 2017-18 The proportion of AF hospitalisations which had a cardiac ablation undertaken has increased steadily since 2004–05 The age-standardised hospitalisation rate for AF (principal diagnosis) increased by 42% between 2000–01 and 2017–18 More than 4 in 5 (83%) CVD hospitalisations occurred in those aged 55 and over 5.6% of Australian adults had 1 or more conditions related to heart or vascular disease, including stroke, in 2017–18 In 2017-08, 0.7% of hospitalisations had a principal diagnosis of AF There were more than 1.2 million hospitalisations for CVD in 2017–18 (11% of all hospitalisations) More than 1 in 4 deaths were due to CVD in 2018 The proportion of AF related deaths almost doubled from 4.6% in 2001 to 9.0% in 2018 15% of acute hospitalisations for stroke had an additional diagnosis of AF in 2017-18

Featured reports

See all reports

Highlights

An estimated 1.2 millionAustralian adults had 1 or more heart or vascular conditions, including stroke, in 2017–18, based on self-reported data
CVDaccounted for almost 14% of Australia’s total burden of disease in 2015
Indigenous Australianshad CVD hospitalisation and death rates that were more than 60% higher than non-Indigenous Australians
Those living in Remote and very remote areas had CVD hospitalisation and death rates that were more than 30% higher than those living in Major cities
1 in 4deaths in 2018 had CVD as the underlying cause of death
More than 1.2 millionhospitalisations were associated with CVD (principal and/or additional diagnosis) in 2017–18— 11% of all hospitalisations in Australia
The CVD death rate was 50% higher among those living in the lowest socioeconomic area compared to those in the highest socioeconomic area