The incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack varies around the UK and between men and women. A conservative estimate for the incidence of MI can be gained by applying the incidence rates for specific age groups observed in the Oxford Record Linkage Study (ORLS) to UK population estimates for 2006. This procedure gives an estimate of 67,000 heart attacks per year in all men and 46,000 in women giving a total of 113,000 heart attacks. This is almost certainly an underestimate as we would expect the incidence of heart attacks to be lower in Oxfordshire than in most other regions of the UK.

An alternate method to calculate MI incidence is to apply case fatality rates calculated by the ORLS to mortality data for the UK. Data show that the age-specific incidence rate of heart attack for those aged 35 and over is up to four and a half times the mortality rate. Using 2006 CHD mortality data we estimate there are about 87,000 heart attacks in men of all ages and about 59,000 in women every year, giving a total of about 146,000.

The incidence rate of heart attack is higher in men than in women and increases with age.  It is highly likely that incidence rates, like mortality rates, are higher in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England than in the South of England.

The World Health Organization MONICA (monitoring trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease) Project collected data on the incidence of heart attack in 35 populations in 21 countries during the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s.  Results showed that incidence rates in the two UK populations included in the study, Belfast and Glasgow, were among the highest in the world, particularly in women.