Coronary heart disease: international comparisons

Over the last 20 years, coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality rates in Scotland have been higher than those in the United Kingdom (UK) as a whole and much higher than those for the European Union (EU). However, the steep declining rates in Scotland have narrowed the absolute gap in rates considerably.

Previous editions of PHS’s Heart Disease Statistics publication have included comparisons of CHD mortality rates between Scotland, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Once the source of these comparisons, the Scotland and European Health for All Database, has been updated then up-to-date comparisons will be possible.

For more detailed comparisons within Europe, the 2012 report "Still 'the sick man of Europe'?" (702kB) shows trends for CHD in Scotland, both in the context of the UK and compared with various other European countries, for people aged 15-74 years, by sex.

The British Heart Foundation website includes a large collation of both UK and international statistics on CHD. Further comparative statistics can be found in the WHO atlas of heart disease and stroke (see parts 3 and 6). For example, in 2000, among a range of countries world-wide, only the former Soviet block countries experienced higher rates than Scotland for 35-74 year old men (Chart 1) and women (Chart 2).

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.