How many people die from stroke each year in the US?

In 2017, 146,383 deaths were attributed to stroke across all 51 US states and territories, with an average age-adjusted rate of 37.4 per 100,000 population.

Which state has the highest stroke death rate?

Mississippi has the highest age-adjusted death rate for stroke at 51.1 per 100,000 population (2017), with 1,723 total deaths.

Which state has the lowest stroke death rate?

New York has the lowest age-adjusted death rate for stroke at 24.6 per 100,000 population (2017), with 6,264 total deaths.

What is the age-adjusted death rate and why does it matter?

The age-adjusted death rate accounts for differences in age distribution between states, making it possible to compare stroke mortality fairly. Without age adjustment, states with older populations would appear to have higher death rates simply due to demographics rather than actual health differences.

How wide is the gap between the highest and lowest stroke death rates?

The gap between the highest rate (Mississippi, 51.1/100K) and lowest rate (New York, 24.6/100K) is 26.5 per 100,000, a 2.1x difference. This variation reflects differences in access to care, lifestyle factors, environmental conditions, and public health investment.

What years of stroke data are available?

Mortality data for Stroke is available from 1999 to 2017, covering 19 years of CDC WONDER data across all US states and territories.

Cause of death · ICD-10 I60-I69 · 2017

Stroke - Death Rates by State

146,383 deaths in 2017 across 51 US states, with age-adjusted rates spanning 24.6-51.1 per 100,000.

Compiled by PlainHealth

Data updated 2017-12-31

146,383
Deaths, 2017: 37.4
Avg age-adj /100K: 37.5
Median /100K: 51
States + DC

Archive split · states

How 146,383 2017 deaths split by state

California 16,355 deaths (11%) Florida 12,602 deaths (9%) Texas 10,790 deaths (7%) Pennsylvania 6,700 deaths (5%) Ohio 6,425 deaths (4%) Other 46 states 93,511 deaths (64%)

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Side-by-side state comparisons and cause lookups use the same CDC NCHS figures shown on this page. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.

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Falling long-run death count

What this means: National stroke deaths fell -13% from 1999 to 2017.

Mississippi leads at 51.1/100K; New York is lowest at 24.6/100K (2.1x gap).

Source: CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death (CDC NCHS / NVSS), 2017. Age-adjusted rates allow fair comparison across states.

Stroke with a falling death count

In 2017, CDC WONDER attributed 146,383 deaths to stroke (ICD-10 I60-I69), with mean state rate 37.4/100K.

The 26.5-point spread across 51 jurisdictions is age-adjusted to the year 2000 US standard population, so the gap between Mississippi and New York is not an artifact of older populations alone. Chronic-disease gaps usually track upstream risk, preventive care access, and specialist reach rather than one shared treatment story.

National stroke deaths fell -13% from 1999 to 2017. Long-run national deaths are down 13% from 1999 to 2017; a falling count can still leave high-rate states above the cause average. These figures describe population-level mortality under ICD-10 I60-I69 and are not individual risk advice.

Mortality guides · Rank every state on stroke · Methodology

States with Lowest Stroke Rates

Bottom 5

The five states with the lowest age-adjusted death rates for stroke in 2017.

1. New York 24.6/100K (-34% vs avg)

2. Massachusetts 26.5/100K (-29% vs avg)

3. Connecticut 27.8/100K (-26% vs avg)

4. Wyoming 28.4/100K (-24% vs avg)

5. New Hampshire 28.9/100K (-23% vs avg)

These 5 states average 27.2/100K, 27% below the 37.4/100K national average. Source: CDC WONDER, 2017

How stroke mortality changed, 1999-2017

Between 1999 and 2017, US stroke deaths fell −13% from 167,366 to 146,383, while the average state age-adjusted rate fell −41% (62.9→37.4/100K).

Average of all 51 state age-adjusted rates per year. Source: CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death (CDC NCHS / NVSS), 1999-2017.

The line tracks the average state age-adjusted rate (unweighted across states), not a single national rate.

Do more deaths mean a higher rate? Stroke, 2017

30 states plotted by total stroke deaths against the age-adjusted rate per 100,000. Total deaths and the age-adjusted rate are only weakly related here (r=-0.19) -- a state's raw death count is driven largely by its size, not necessarily by an elevated per-capita risk, and vice versa.

Total deaths and the age-adjusted rate are only weakly related here (r=-0.19) -- a state's raw death count is driven largely by its size, not necessarily by an elevated per-capita risk, and vice versa.

How the 51 states are spread on stroke

Mississippi (51.1) and New York (24.6) sit at the extremes; the marker shows where the national average (37.4/100K) falls in the distribution.

Stroke age-adjusted rate distribution, 2017

All 51 states bucketed by rate, most cluster near the average, with a tail toward the high end

37.4 Lower than 53% lower than 53% of 51 states

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death (CDC NCHS / NVSS) · 2017

All State Rankings - Stroke (2017)

#	State	Deaths	Age-Adjusted	vs Avg
1	Mississippi	1,723	51.1	+37%
2	Alabama	2,931	50.0	+34%
3	Louisiana	2,460	47.4	+27%
4	Delaware	571	46.2	+23%
5	Tennessee	3,519	45.0	+20%
6	South Carolina	2,691	44.9	+20%
7	Arkansas	1,612	43.8	+17%
8	Georgia	4,399	43.5	+16%
9	Oklahoma	1,947	43.3	+16%
10	North Carolina	5,098	43.0	+15%
11	Ohio	6,425	42.8	+14%
12	West Virginia	1,058	41.8	+12%
13	Texas	10,790	41.3	+10%
14	Missouri	3,159	41.0	+10%
15	Maryland	2,820	40.2	+7%
16	Indiana	3,150	40.2	+7%
17	Oregon	2,066	39.9	+7%
18	Kentucky	2,050	39.4	+5%
19	Michigan	5,002	39.3	+5%
20	Illinois	6,020	38.9	+4%
21	Florida	12,602	38.9	+4%
22	Idaho	726	38.5	+3%
23	Kansas	1,355	37.7	+1%
24	California	16,355	37.6	+0%
25	Virginia	3,555	37.5	+0%
26	Maine	736	37.5	+0%
27	Hawaii	764	37.5	+0%
28	Washington	3,028	36.9	-1%
29	South Dakota	414	36.7	-2%
30	Pennsylvania	6,700	36.5	-2%
31	Utah	888	36.2	-3%
32	Nevada	1,137	35.9	-4%
33	District of Columbia	246	35.9	-4%
34	Colorado	1,988	35.8	-4%
35	Montana	487	35.6	-5%
36	North Dakota	337	35.4	-5%
37	Alaska	190	35.1	-6%
38	New Mexico	878	34.8	-7%
39	Wisconsin	2,513	33.5	-10%
40	Iowa	1,416	32.8	-12%
41	Minnesota	2,250	32.6	-13%
42	Nebraska	760	31.5	-16%
43	Arizona	2,681	30.8	-18%
44	New Jersey	3,474	30.2	-19%
45	Rhode Island	425	29.4	-21%
46	Vermont	249	28.9	-23%
47	New Hampshire	514	28.9	-23%
48	Wyoming	190	28.4	-24%
49	Connecticut	1,403	27.8	-26%
50	Massachusetts	2,367	26.5	-29%
51	New York	6,264	24.6	-34%

Causes with similar national CDC WONDER totals

Two peer sets for Stroke: nearest other chapters on published national death counts and long-run change.

Similar 2017 death count

Nearest leading causes by national death count (146,383 here).

CLRD 160,201 Unintentional injuries 169,936 Alzheimer's disease 121,404

Similar 1999→2017 death-count change

Nearest leading causes by long-run national death-count percent change, excluding the count-peer set.

Influenza and pneumonia -13% Heart disease -11% Cancer +9%

Rates are per 100,000 population. Age-adjusted rates use the year 2000 US standard population. ICD-10 code: I60-I69. Data covers 1999-2017. Source: CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death (CDC NCHS / NVSS). Methodology.

According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, PlainHealthData's mortality figures are rendered directly from 9,690 official state-year-cause records (NCHS Leading Causes of Death for calendar years 1999-2017). June 2026 is when this portal last verified that frozen CDC file is intact; it is not a newer claims year. No figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our data changelog, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of 2017.