A new American Heart Association scientific statement says cardiovascular disease became the leading cause of death among Hispanic people in the United States in 2022.
For California, though, there is a more useful question:
What does that cardiovascular burden actually look like here?
The answer is bigger and more complicated than simply saying that “heart disease” is the leading killer.
That is because cardiovascular disease is broader than heart disease alone. It includes conditions involving the heart and blood vessels, including stroke and several forms of hypertension and other circulatory disease.
And California’s numbers show why that distinction matters.
The American Heart Association’s scientific statement says Hispanic and Latino populations are highly diverse, with differences in heritage, language, nativity and social conditions that can affect cardiovascular risk and outcomes.
California’s mortality data provide a more local view.
The 2025 California Latino Health Almanac, using CDC WONDER mortality data, reports that in 2022 the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease among Latino/x Californians was 117.4 deaths per 100,000 people.
The cancer rate was 108.5 per 100,000.
So, on this measure, heart disease alone had a higher mortality rate than cancer among Latino/x Californians in 2022.
But heart disease is only one part of the cardiovascular picture.
The same California data report an age-adjusted mortality rate of 36.4 per 100,000 for cerebrovascular disease, which includes stroke, and 13.7 per 100,000 for essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease.
Added to the heart disease rate, those separately reported categories total 167.5 deaths per 100,000.
That is substantially higher than the 108.5 per 100,000 cancer rate.
And even that does not capture every condition that can fall within the broader cardiovascular category.
The definition changes what the numbers show.
The local numbers make the issue easier to see.
Among Hispanic and Latino residents of Los Angeles County in 2022, there were:
- 4,543 deaths from diseases of the heart
- 4,248 cancer deaths
- 1,225 deaths from cerebrovascular disease
- 500 deaths from essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease
Los Angeles County mortality tables show that diseases of the heart ranked above cancer in 2022 among Hispanic/Latino residents.
But the additional stroke and hypertension deaths show why a heart-disease-versus-cancer comparison does not capture the full cardiovascular burden.
The pattern also changes in later years.
In 2023 and 2024, cancer deaths among Hispanic and Latino residents of Los Angeles County again exceeded deaths classified simply as diseases of the heart.
That does not answer the broader cardiovascular question, because stroke, hypertension and other circulatory diseases are classified separately.
So the important question is not simply “Did heart disease beat cancer?”
It is:
“What happens when we look at cardiovascular disease as a whole?”
This is where the evidence becomes more complicated.
The AHA statement identifies a substantial burden of cardiometabolic risk factors among Hispanic adults, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. It also discusses differences in health-care access, language and social and structural conditions.
California’s Latino Health Almanac points to related challenges, including differences in access to a usual source of care and the availability of Latino physicians, particularly specialists. The report also documents increases in obesity, diabetes complications and diabetes mortality.
These factors raise important questions about prevention and treatment.
But they do not establish that any one of them caused cardiovascular mortality to exceed cancer.
The available data cannot tell us, for example, how much of the burden is attributable to diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, access to primary care, specialist availability, treatment gaps, food environments, stress or socioeconomic conditions.
Those are separate questions that require additional research.
Why access to care matters
Access is still an important part of the story.
Can people get regular primary care?
Can high blood pressure or diabetes be identified early?
Can patients obtain medications and follow-up care?
Can they see a specialist when one is needed?
And are cost, transportation or language creating barriers?
Parriva has examined some of these questions in its reporting on preventable hospitalizations and Medi-Cal coverage in South Los Angeles and transportation to medical appointments.
Those issues are relevant to cardiovascular prevention, but they should not be treated as proof of what caused the mortality pattern.
“Latino” is not one health profile
The AHA statement makes another point that matters for California: Hispanic and Latino people are not one homogeneous population.
People grouped under the same broad ethnic category can have different countries or regions of origin, languages, generations, ages, economic circumstances and experiences with the health-care system. The AHA says those differences can shape cardiovascular risk and outcomes.
A statewide number can tell us that a significant problem exists.
It cannot tell us that every Latino community faces the same level of risk or explain which communities are carrying the greatest burden.
That requires more detailed data.
What we know
The evidence establishes several things.
The national finding: The AHA reports that cardiovascular disease became the leading cause of death among Hispanic people in the United States in 2022.
The California finding: In 2022, the age-adjusted mortality rate for heart disease among Latino/x Californians was 117.4 per 100,000, compared with 108.5 for cancer.
The broader cardiovascular picture: Adding the separately reported California rates for cerebrovascular disease and essential hypertension/hypertensive renal disease brings those three categories to 167.5 deaths per 100,000.
The Los Angeles picture: In 2022, diseases of the heart accounted for more deaths among Hispanic/Latino residents than cancer, while stroke and hypertension accounted for additional deaths.
The risk picture: The AHA and California research identify cardiometabolic risk factors and differences in access to care and social conditions that warrant further investigation.
What we don’t know
The data do not tell us exactly why cardiovascular mortality is so high.
They do not establish how much individual risk factors or access barriers contribute to the overall mortality pattern.
They also do not tell us whether every Latino community in California experiences the same burden.
And population-level mortality statistics cannot tell an individual reader what their personal cardiovascular risk is.
That requires individual health information and, when appropriate, medical advice from a health professional.
The California question is just beginning
The most important lesson from the new national finding may be that the cardiovascular health story is bigger than heart attacks alone.
It includes stroke.
It includes hypertension.
It includes diabetes and other risk factors.
And it raises a practical question: Are Californians getting the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment they need early enough to prevent serious cardiovascular disease?
We have also looked at the broader economic side of health, including how health-care costs affect California Latino households.
The next step is to go deeper into the California data: which communities have the highest cardiovascular burden, which risk factors are most common there, and where the largest gaps in prevention and treatment may exist.
That is where the California story gets more specific and where the numbers can begin to tell us what needs a closer look.
Key evidence
American Heart Association: State of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Hispanic/Latino Adults in the United States.
California Health Care Foundation: California Latino Health Almanac — 2025 Edition.
California Department of Public Health: California State of Public Health — 2024.
CDC WONDER: Final detailed mortality data through 2024.
Los Angeles Almanac: Los Angeles County mortality tables by race/ethnicity and underlying cause.
