Death rates from CVD have been falling in the UK since the early 1970s.  For people under 75 years, they have fallen by 40% in the last ten years.

Death rates from CHD have been falling in the UK since the late 1970s. For people under 65 years, they have fallen by 45% in the last ten years.  

In recent years, CHD death rates have been falling slower in younger age groups and fastest in those aged 55 and over. For example, between 1997 and 2006 there was a 46% fall in the CHD death rate for men aged 55 to 64 in the UK, compared to a 22% fall in men aged 35 to 44 years. In women there was a 53% fall in those aged 55 to 64 years and a 20% fall in those aged 35 to 44 years. There is some evidence that these rates are beginning to plateau in younger age groups.

Death rates from stroke fell throughout the latter part of the twentieth century.   For people under 65 they have fallen by 30% in the last ten years.   Recently rates have declined at a slower rate than previously, particularly in the younger age groups.

A recent study aimed to explain the decline in mortality from CHD over the last two decades of the twentieth century in Britain. Combining and analysing data on uptake and effectiveness of cardiological treatments and risk factor trends, the authors examined how much of the decline in CHD mortality in England and Wales between 1981 and 2000 could be attributed to medical and surgical treatments and how much to changes in cardiovascular risk factors. They concluded that more than half (58%) of the CHD mortality decline in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s was attributable to reductions in major risk factors, principally smoking. Treatments to individuals, including secondary prevention, explained the remaining two-fifths (42%) of the mortality decline.