{"chart":{"slug":"heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths","title":"How does heart disease compare with cancer as a cause of death in the US?","takeaway":"In 1950 there were about 3 heart disease deaths for every cancer death in the US. By 2018 there were 1.1, because the heart disease death rate fell much faster than the cancer rate; around 2012 the two came within a few percent of each other. Heart disease had the higher rate in every year from 1900 to 2018. The ratio compares age-adjusted death rates from one CDC dataset, which stops at 2018.","topic":"Health","chart_type":"line","ranking":false,"x_label":"Year","y_label":"Heart disease deaths for each cancer death (ratio of age-adjusted rates)","unit":null,"points_count":119,"source":{"name":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death","url":"https://data.cdc.gov/National-Center-for-Health-Statistics/NCHS-Age-adjusted-Death-Rates-for-Selected-Major-C/6rkc-nb2q"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.cdc.gov/other/agencymaterials.html"},"data_as_of":"2018-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.038Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths/embed","credit":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths)","credit_html":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"1900","value":2.31},{"label":"1901","value":2.31},{"label":"1902","value":2.38},{"label":"1903","value":2.43},{"label":"1904","value":2.59},{"label":"1905","value":2.47},{"label":"1906","value":2.53},{"label":"1907","value":2.68},{"label":"1908","value":2.44},{"label":"1909","value":2.38},{"label":"1910","value":2.41},{"label":"1911","value":2.43},{"label":"1912","value":2.39},{"label":"1913","value":2.29},{"label":"1914","value":2.36},{"label":"1915","value":2.42},{"label":"1916","value":2.45},{"label":"1917","value":2.51},{"label":"1918","value":2.47},{"label":"1919","value":2.21},{"label":"1920","value":2.36},{"label":"1921","value":2.24},{"label":"1922","value":2.37},{"label":"1923","value":2.43},{"label":"1924","value":2.41},{"label":"1925","value":2.49},{"label":"1926","value":2.63},{"label":"1927","value":2.52},{"label":"1928","value":2.69},{"label":"1929","value":2.72},{"label":"1930","value":2.68},{"label":"1931","value":2.61},{"label":"1932","value":2.69},{"label":"1933","value":2.71},{"label":"1934","value":2.77},{"label":"1935","value":2.76},{"label":"1936","value":2.92},{"label":"1937","value":2.92},{"label":"1938","value":2.85},{"label":"1939","value":2.86},{"label":"1940","value":2.97},{"label":"1941","value":2.92},{"label":"1942","value":2.89},{"label":"1943","value":3.09},{"label":"1944","value":2.94},{"label":"1945","value":2.85},{"label":"1946","value":2.82},{"label":"1947","value":2.9},{"label":"1948","value":2.84},{"label":"1949","value":3.0},{"label":"1950","value":3.04},{"label":"1951","value":3.01},{"label":"1952","value":2.93},{"label":"1953","value":2.93},{"label":"1954","value":2.8},{"label":"1955","value":2.86},{"label":"1956","value":2.87},{"label":"1957","value":2.91},{"label":"1958","value":2.94},{"label":"1959","value":2.88},{"label":"1960","value":2.88},{"label":"1961","value":2.82},{"label":"1962","value":2.88},{"label":"1963","value":2.89},{"label":"1964","value":2.81},{"label":"1965","value":2.77},{"label":"1966","value":2.75},{"label":"1967","value":2.66},{"label":"1968","value":2.67},{"label":"1969","value":2.6},{"label":"1970","value":2.48},{"label":"1971","value":2.47},{"label":"1972","value":2.45},{"label":"1973","value":2.41},{"label":"1974","value":2.28},{"label":"1975","value":2.15},{"label":"1976","value":2.11},{"label":"1977","value":2.03},{"label":"1978","value":2.0},{"label":"1979","value":1.97},{"label":"1980","value":1.98},{"label":"1981","value":1.92},{"label":"1982","value":1.87},{"label":"1983","value":1.86},{"label":"1984","value":1.8},{"label":"1985","value":1.77},{"label":"1986","value":1.73},{"label":"1987","value":1.68},{"label":"1988","value":1.66},{"label":"1989","value":1.55},{"label":"1990","value":1.49},{"label":"1991","value":1.46},{"label":"1992","value":1.43},{"label":"1993","value":1.45},{"label":"1994","value":1.42},{"label":"1995","value":1.41},{"label":"1996","value":1.39},{"label":"1997","value":1.38},{"label":"1998","value":1.36},{"label":"1999","value":1.33},{"label":"2000","value":1.29},{"label":"2001","value":1.27},{"label":"2002","value":1.26},{"label":"2003","value":1.24},{"label":"2004","value":1.19},{"label":"2005","value":1.17},{"label":"2006","value":1.13},{"label":"2007","value":1.09},{"label":"2008","value":1.09},{"label":"2009","value":1.05},{"label":"2010","value":1.04},{"label":"2011","value":1.03},{"label":"2012","value":1.02},{"label":"2013","value":1.04},{"label":"2014","value":1.04},{"label":"2015","value":1.06},{"label":"2016","value":1.06},{"label":"2017","value":1.08},{"label":"2018","value":1.1}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/heart-disease-vs-cancer-deaths)"}