• Only 13% of women view heart disease as a health threat, even though it’s women's No. 1 killer.
• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills over 480,000 women a year, about one per minute.
• One in three adult females and males in the United States suffers from a form of CVD.
• CVD claims more lives than the next four most common causes of death combined.
• On average, an American dies of CVD every 35 seconds.
• Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 single killer of women over age 25.
• 64% of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms.
• One in 2.6 female deaths are from CVD, compared with one in 30 from breast cancer.
• Heart disease rates in post-menopausal women are two to three times higher than in pre-menopausal women of the same age.
• Stroke is the #3 cause of death for American women, and is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability.
• Stroke kills more women than men. In 2003, females represented 61% of stroke deaths.

Get more key statistics on stroke cases in the U.S. from the American Heart Association