---
type: source
title: "HF STATS 2024/2025: Heart Failure Epidemiology and Outcomes Statistics — Rising Mortality, Worsening Disparities"
author: "Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA)"
url: https://onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(24)00232-X/abstract
date: 2024-09-01
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: journal-article
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-04-08
priority: high
tags: [heart-failure, HFpEF, mortality, epidemiology, disparities, racial-health-equity, cardiovascular]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

HFSA annual heart failure statistics reports (2024 and 2025 editions, Journal of Cardiac Failure).

Key 2024 findings:
- 6.7 million Americans over 20 currently live with heart failure
- Projected rise to 8.7M (2030), 10.3M (2040), 11.4M (2050)
- HF-related deaths accelerated in 2020-2021: 425,147 deaths linked to HF, 45% of cardiovascular deaths
- HF mortality has been increasing since 2012 (reversing prior decades of decline)
- Age-adjusted HF mortality rate now 3% higher than 25 years ago
- 2020-2021 "pronounced acceleration" beyond pre-COVID trend
- Black adults: highest age-adjusted HF mortality, rising faster than any other racial group, particularly under age 65
- HF-related AFib mortality 1999-2024: disparities by gender, race/ethnicity, and region documented

2025 report update: Continuing trend confirmation, addition of more recent demographic breakdown data.

JACC 2025 study (HF prevalence 1988-2023): Trends in prevalence, associated risk factors, and health burden confirmed rising trajectory across all demographic groups.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the authoritative confirmation that heart failure — the specific condition driving the CVD bifurcation pattern — is on a structurally worsening trajectory independent of COVID effects. The 2012 inflection is key: HF mortality began rising well before COVID, suggesting an underlying structural driver (aging population, obesity/metabolic syndrome epidemic, improved survival from acute MI creating larger HF pool). COVID accelerated but did not cause the trend.

**What surprised me:** The 45% of cardiovascular deaths attributable to HF in 2020-2021 is much higher than I expected. HF is now the dominant cardiovascular killer, not ischemic heart disease. This inverts the historical picture. The bifurcation has progressed further than my Session 19 analysis suggested.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Data on HFpEF vs HFrEF breakdown of the mortality trend. HFpEF (preserved ejection fraction) is the obesity-driven subtype and is disproportionately rising. The distinction matters for GLP-1 intervention targeting (GLP-1 shown effective in HFpEF specifically). The HFSA reports may have this breakdown in the full text.

**KB connections:** Directly extends the CVD bifurcation thesis (HF at all-time high claim in Session 19). The Black disparities finding connects to the epidemiological transition claim about social disadvantage as primary health outcome driver. The 2012 inflection (rising since 2011 per AHA, 2012 per HFSA) — pre-dates COVID — rules out COVID as a primary cause and points to structural metabolic/social drivers.

**Extraction hints:** Primary claim: "US heart failure mortality has risen since 2011-2012, is now 3% higher than 25 years ago, and is projected to reach 11.4 million cases by 2050 — driven by metabolic syndrome burden and improved survival from acute MI creating a larger chronic HF pool." Sub-claim: "HF-related deaths disproportionately rising among Black adults under 65, reflecting structural rather than biological causes."

**Context:** HFSA annual statistics are peer-reviewed, non-industry funded. Highest credibility for HF epidemiology. The 2024 and 2025 editions represent the most current authoritative data available.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)

PRIMARY CONNECTION: CVD bifurcation pattern (HF at all-time high claim from Session 19); epidemiological transition from material scarcity to social disadvantage
WHY ARCHIVED: Provides the HFSA-authoritative backing for the CVD bifurcation thesis. The 2012 inflection date and the Black adult disparity finding are the key data points not previously in the KB.
EXTRACTION HINT: Cross-reference with JACC Stats 2026 archive (same session). Together they support a robust claim about HF as the dominant and rising cardiovascular killer, requiring a claim update or new claim to capture the bifurcation from IHD-dominant to HF-dominant CVD mortality.
