TOP 10 Countries with Lowest CVD Mortality (2025)
Lowest Cardiovascular Disease Mortality by Country: 2025 Snapshot Based on WHO 2021 Estimates
This ranking compares countries by age-standardized cardiovascular disease mortality, measured as deaths per 100,000 people. Lower values rank better. The 2025 snapshot is based on the latest comparable country-level WHO Global Health Estimates available through Our World in Data: 2021 values, with the OWID data page last updated in 2024.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The table is a single-source research dataset using official WHO-based estimates. It includes 10 countries, all measured in the same unit and source year. There are 10 official estimate rows, 0 official forecasts and 0 modeled projections. Values are rounded to whole deaths per 100,000 people for readability.
Age-standardization is important because cardiovascular mortality rises sharply with age. This method compares countries as if they had the same age structure, making the ranking more meaningful than a crude death-rate comparison.
Japan ranks first, using the rounded WHO-based 2021 age-standardized CVD mortality estimate.
Belgium closes the ten-country benchmark at 100 deaths per 100,000 people.
Countries with verified values for the same source year, metric and unit.
Deaths per 100,000 people; 10 official WHO-based estimates; no forecasts or projections.
Overview
The upper end of the ranking is concentrated among high-income health systems with long-running prevention programmes, strong primary care access, reliable emergency pathways and broad treatment coverage for blood pressure, cholesterol and acute cardiac events. The result is not a general health-system league table. It measures one specific outcome: deaths from cardiovascular diseases after adjusting for age.
The ten-country range is narrow: Japan is listed at 72 deaths per 100,000 people, while Belgium is listed at 100. That 28-point spread is small compared with the wider global range usually seen in cardiovascular mortality data, where many countries remain several times higher.
The ranking should be read alongside other indicators. A country can have low age-standardized CVD mortality but still face challenges in obesity, diabetes, smoking, inequality, emergency access or regional gaps in care.
Top 10 countries by lowest age-standardized CVD mortality
The table below shows the same metric, source year and unit for every country. Values are deaths per 100,000 people, and lower values rank higher.
Top 10 countries by lowest age-standardized cardiovascular disease mortality
| Rank | Country | Value | Region / note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 72 | High-income Asia-Pacific; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 2 | France | 80 | Western Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 3 | Israel | 82 | High-income Middle East; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 4 | Singapore | 82 | High-income Asia; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 5 | Spain | 90 | Southern Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 6 | Switzerland | 92 | Western Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 7 | Norway | 95 | Nordic Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 8 | Australia | 98 | High-income Oceania; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 9 | Denmark | 99 | Nordic Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
| 10 | Belgium | 100 | Western Europe; official WHO-based 2021 estimate, rounded. |
Unit: age-standardized cardiovascular disease deaths per 100,000 people. Source: WHO Global Health Estimates 2021, shown through the Our World in Data processed indicator page.
Chart: CVD mortality rate in the ten-country benchmark
The chart uses the same values as the table. Shorter bars indicate lower age-standardized cardiovascular disease mortality. Belgium at 100 deaths per 100,000 people is used as the internal scaling reference.
Methodology
The metric is the estimated age-standardized death rate from cardiovascular diseases among the total population, measured per 100,000 people. The source year is 2021 because the latest comparable country-level WHO Global Health Estimates time series available through the referenced OWID indicator runs to 2021. The page is labelled as a 2025 snapshot because it uses the latest published benchmark available for comparison, not because it reports 2025 measured deaths.
Values were checked against the Our World in Data indicator table for the selected country-level measure: cardiovascular disease death rate, age-standardized, deaths per 100,000 people, year 2021. The underlying source is WHO Global Health Estimates. Displayed figures are rounded to whole deaths per 100,000 people.
Ranking direction is ascending: a lower death rate ranks better. Where countries have the same rounded value, the order follows the compiled table order and should not be interpreted as a precise statistical difference. Israel and Singapore both display 82 after rounding.
Inclusion rule: a country is included only when it has a visible latest-available value for the same metric, unit and source year. Regional aggregates, income-group aggregates and entries without country-level values are excluded. Missing values are not estimated or imputed.
Source hierarchy prioritizes official international health estimates. WHO Global Health Estimates are used for the mortality indicator, while Our World in Data is used for processed access, metadata and the public indicator table. No commercial health ranking is used to determine the rows.
The indicator does not measure cardiovascular incidence, risk-factor prevalence, quality of treatment alone, preventable mortality, health spending, inequality inside a country or total deaths. It is a mortality outcome adjusted for age, and it should be interpreted with registration quality, population structure and public-health context in mind.
Ranking table with source and method notes
The table keeps the source year visible because these are latest-available WHO-based estimates, not 2025 measured deaths. Each row uses the same source, unit and age-standardized mortality definition.
Lowest cardiovascular disease mortality countries, WHO-based 2021 estimates
| Rank | Country | Value | Source / method note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 72 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 2 | France | 80 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 3 | Israel | 82 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 4 | Singapore | 82 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 5 | Spain | 90 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 6 | Switzerland | 92 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 7 | Norway | 95 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 8 | Australia | 98 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 9 | Denmark | 99 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
| 10 | Belgium | 100 | Status: official WHO-based estimate; source year: 2021; unit: deaths per 100,000 people; age-standardized; rounded. |
Rank is calculated from the numeric value in ascending order. The table includes 10 countries with verified values for the same source year, metric and unit.
Insights
Key insight
Japan leads the table at 72 deaths per 100,000 people. Because the indicator is age-standardized, the result is not simply explained by Japan’s older population structure.
Notable pattern
The list is dominated by high-income systems where prevention, diagnosis, blood-pressure control, emergency cardiac care and long-term medication access are usually more established.
Regional concentration
Europe accounts for 6 of the 10 rows: France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Belgium. The pattern points to mature chronic-disease management rather than a single national model.
Outlier
Singapore stands out as a compact city-state with a low rounded rate similar to Israel. Its position should be read as a mortality outcome, not as proof that every health-system dimension is stronger than in larger countries.
What it means
For readers, this ranking is best used as a benchmark for cardiovascular outcomes, not as a complete measure of national health. A low age-standardized CVD mortality rate usually reflects a combination of prevention, primary care, fast emergency response, hospital treatment capacity and long-term management of chronic risk factors.
The ranking can help compare broad health outcomes across countries, but it cannot show why an individual country performs well. Diet, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, air pollution, income inequality, treatment access and death-registration quality can all affect the final number.
The most practical reading is comparative: countries near the top show that very low cardiovascular mortality is possible at national scale. The policy question is not only how much a country spends on health care, but whether prevention, early diagnosis, emergency treatment and long-term follow-up work together.
FAQ
What exactly is being ranked?
The ranking compares countries by age-standardized deaths from cardiovascular diseases per 100,000 people. Cardiovascular diseases include major conditions such as ischemic heart disease, stroke and other circulatory-system causes included in the WHO estimate framework.
Why does lower rank better?
The value is a mortality rate. A lower number means fewer deaths after adjusting for age, so the ranking is sorted in ascending order.
Why is the page called a 2025 snapshot if the values are from 2021?
The page uses the latest comparable WHO-based country data available for this indicator. It is a 2025 snapshot of the published benchmark, not a claim that the deaths were measured in 2025.
Are these raw national death counts?
No. These are WHO-based estimates expressed as age-standardized death rates per 100,000 people. They are designed for international comparison and are not the same as raw death-count totals.
Does this prove which country has the best health system?
No. The metric captures one outcome related to cardiovascular mortality. A full health-system comparison would also need access, quality, equity, spending, waiting times, prevention, patient outcomes and many other indicators.
Why does age-standardization matter?
Countries have different age structures, and cardiovascular mortality rises strongly with age. Age-standardization reduces that demographic distortion and makes cross-country comparison more meaningful.
Why are some differences small?
The values are rounded to whole deaths per 100,000 people. Small gaps should not be overinterpreted, especially when two countries display the same rounded value.
Sources
The ranking uses official international health estimates and a processed public indicator table. Source links are listed here rather than inside table cells to keep the ranking readable on desktop and mobile screens.
WHO Global Health Estimates
Primary source for comparable country-level mortality estimates, including deaths by cause and age-standardized rates. Used as the official source base for the cardiovascular mortality values.
WHO Global Health EstimatesOur World in Data · Cardiovascular disease death rate indicator
Processed public indicator page showing the age-standardized cardiovascular disease death rate by country, based on WHO Global Health Estimates. Used for row-level table access and source-year consistency.
OWID cardiovascular disease death rate grapherWorld Health Organization · Mortality and morbidity documentation
Provides context for WHO mortality estimates, cause-of-death statistics and global health measurement. Used to support the interpretation of mortality estimates and their limits.
WHO mortality and global health estimates theme
