California data show the cardiovascular burden is bigger than the phrase “heart disease” suggests. In Los Angeles, the 2022 numbers make the local picture especially clear.
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.
That national finding matters. But for California, the more useful question is: What do the numbers show here?
The answer is more complicated than the headline might suggest and more important than simply saying that “heart disease” is now the leading killer.
The reason is that cardiovascular disease is broader than heart disease.
The American Heart Association’s definition covers cardiovascular disease across the circulatory system, while its statement also emphasizes substantial differences among Hispanic populations by heritage, language, nativity and social conditions.
The 2025 California Latino Health Almanac, using CDC WONDER mortality data, reports that in 2022 the age-adjusted death rate for heart disease among Latino/x Californians was 117.4 per 100,000, compared with 108.5 for cancer.
That alone puts heart disease ahead of cancer on the age-adjusted rate measure.
But heart disease is only 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 for essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease.
Taken together, those separately reported cardiovascular categories account for 167.5 deaths per 100,000, well above the cancer rate of 108.5.
And that still does not represent every condition included in the broader cardiovascular category.
A story about “heart disease” alone understates what the cardiovascular data actually capture.
The state’s own 2024 State of Public Health report shows why. California’s 2022 cardiovascular mortality included ischemic heart disease, stroke, hypertensive heart disease, congestive heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions.
The local data make the distinction even more visible.
Among Hispanic and Latino residents of Los Angeles County, there were 4,543 deaths from diseases of the heart in 2022, compared with 4,248 cancer deaths. Cerebrovascular diseases accounted for another 1,225 deaths, while essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease accounted for 500. See the Los Angeles County mortality tables
In other words, heart disease alone was already ahead of cancer in Los Angeles County in 2022. When other major cardiovascular causes are included, the cardiovascular burden becomes substantially larger.
The pattern also shows why the year matters.
In 2023 and 2024, cancer deaths among L.A. County Hispanic/Latino residents again exceeded deaths classified simply as diseases of the heart. But that narrower comparison does not answer the broader cardiovascular question because stroke, hypertension and other circulatory diseases are separate causes within the cardiovascular category.
That is why comparing only “heart disease” and cancer can give readers an incomplete picture.
Readers can also see the broader local health-access context in Parriva’s reporting on preventable hospitalizations and Medi-Cal coverage in South Los Angeles.
So why is this happening?
This is where the evidence becomes more complicated.
The American Heart Association identifies a substantial burden of cardiometabolic risk factors among Hispanic adults, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. It also points to differences in health-care access, language, social conditions and other structural factors.
California’s Latino Health Almanac provides a similar warning from a state perspective.
The report says Latino/x Californians are less likely to have a usual source of care, more likely to receive care in community or government clinics, and have a much lower ratio of Latino physicians, particularly specialists, relative to the Latino population. It also documents continued increases in obesity, diabetes complications and diabetes mortality.
Those facts raise important questions about prevention and treatment.
But they do not, by themselves, prove that lack of insurance, limited access to specialists, obesity or diabetes caused cardiovascular disease to overtake cancer in the mortality rankings.
That causal question requires more investigation.
For readers interested in how access affects everyday health decisions, we have also examined free transportation to medical appointments and what eligible patients need to know about those benefits.
Another warning: “Latino” is not one health profile
The AHA’s new scientific statement emphasizes that Hispanic and Latino populations are highly diverse, with differences in heritage, ancestry, language and social conditions. The authors argue that treating Hispanic people as one homogeneous population can hide important differences in cardiovascular risk and outcomes.
That matters in California, where the Latino population includes people with different national and regional backgrounds, generations, ages and health-care experiences.
A statewide average can tell us that a problem exists.
It cannot necessarily tell us who is carrying the largest burden or why.
Parriva has looked at the broader health-access picture for Latino Californians, including how food insecurity and difficulty accessing care affect communities across the state.
What the evidence tells us
The national AHA finding is real: cardiovascular disease became the leading cause of death among Hispanic people in the United States in 2022.
California’s available mortality data are consistent with that larger finding. In 2022, the age-adjusted mortality rate for heart disease alone among Latino/x Californians was higher than the cancer rate, and adding other major cardiovascular causes makes the gap substantially larger.
Los Angeles County’s 2022 death counts show the same basic pattern: heart disease deaths exceeded cancer deaths, and stroke and hypertension added substantially to the cardiovascular burden.
The underlying mortality system is CDC WONDER’s final detailed mortality database, which currently provides final mortality data through 2024 and allows analysis by state and county, Hispanic ethnicity, year and ICD-10 cause of death, including death counts and age-adjusted rates.
What the evidence does not yet tell us
It does not tell us exactly why cardiovascular mortality is so high.
It does not tell us whether the biggest drivers are diabetes, hypertension, obesity, access to primary care, treatment gaps, language barriers, food environments, stress, socioeconomic conditions or some combination of those factors.
And it does not tell us whether every Latino community in California experiences the same cardiovascular risk.
Those are the questions that deserve the next round of reporting.
Parriva has already explored some of the access side of that equation, including recent reporting on health-care costs and how medical expenses can affect California Latino households.
For Californians, the most useful lesson from the new national warning may be this:
The cardiovascular health story is much bigger than heart attacks alone.
It includes stroke. It includes hypertension. It includes prevention and treatment. And for Latino communities, understanding the problem may require looking much earlier — at whether people can get screened, diagnosed and treated before cardiovascular disease becomes fatal.
That is where the California story is just beginning.
Key evidence
American Heart Association: Scientific statement on cardiovascular disease and stroke among Hispanic/Latino adults. Open the AHA source
California Health Care Foundation: California Latino Health Almanac — 2025 Edition. Open the California Latino Health Almanac
California Department of Public Health: California State of Public Health — 2024. Open the CDPH report
CDC WONDER: Final detailed mortality data through 2024. Open CDC WONDER mortality documentation
Los Angeles Almanac: Los Angeles County mortality tables by race/ethnicity and underlying cause. Open the L.A. mortality tables
