Science2020sglobalhigh confidence

Heart disease accounted for an estimated 19 million deaths worldwide in 2020, making it the leading cause of death globally.

Notes on verification

Confirmed by AHA's Global Burden of Disease-based statistics (19.1 million deaths in 2020) and consistently corroborated by WHO fact sheets identifying cardiovascular disease as the leading global cause of death across adjacent years. [tier=silver indep_score=0.925 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable]

Sources