Search

Shop

Donate

Your heartHealthy livingFor professionalsResearchHow you can helpAbout us
key-statistics-heart-attack

Key statistics: Heart attack

Your heart

/

Evidence and statistics

/

Key statistics: Heart attack

Statistics and information on heart attack in Australia

1 min read

  • The information on our Key Statistics pages is drawn from a variety of reputable sources including the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
  • These pages are intended to be a helpful resource for anyone seeking reliable information on cardiovascular disease in Australia, including consumers, researchers, healthcare policy makers, media and health professionals.

Heart attack

A heart attack is a sudden loss of the blood supply to an area of the heart, usually due to blockage of an artery.

This means that the heart muscle isn’t getting the blood and oxygen it needs to effectively pump blood to the rest of the body. 

Explore the statistics relating to heart attacks below.

Prevalence1

  • Almost 2% of people will experience a heart attack sometime in their life, equating to 430,000 people in Australia. 
  • More than twice as many men experience heart attacks compared to women. 
  • The rate of people reporting having heart attacks has increased 6% since 2017-18. 

Deaths3

  • Heart attacks are responsible for causing almost 1 in 25 of all deaths (around 4%). 
  • This equates to one person dying of a heart attack approximately every 80 minutes, or on average 19 people every day. 
  • Considerably more men die from heart attacks compared to women (75% higher rate*). 
  • Deaths from heart attacks have been decreasing over time, with the number of people losing their lives due to heart attacks reducing by half over the last ten years.*

Hospitalisations3

  • Over 150 people are hospitalised due to a heart attack every day, this is on average, one person every nine minutes. 
  • Almost twice as many men are admitted to hospital for heart attacks, compared to women. 
  • The number of people hospitalised due to a heart attack have slowly decreased over the last ten years.*  
  • $680 million is spent on people admitted to hospital for heart attacks, with this amount rising on average by about 4% every year.4 

* After adjusting for population size and age distribution. 

Links to other Key Statistics topics:

risk-factors-for-cardiovascular-disease
Key statistics: Risk factors for cardiovascular disease

There are many different risk factors that increase your likelihood of developing a cardiovascular disease, such as heart disease.

coronary-heart-disease
Key statistics: Coronary heart disease

Statistics and information on coronary heart disease in Australia.

A doctor holding a red heart with a stethoscope, symbolizing care and medical expertise.
Key statistics: Heart disease

Statistics and information on heart disease in Australia

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023, National Health Survey 2022.  

2. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023, Causes of death 2022, cat. No. 3303.0, October.  

3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2023, National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) 2021-22. 

4. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2017, Health Expenditure database, custom data request.  

Last updated16 January 2024