High Cholesterol in the United States: Key Numbers

The basics

• High total cholesterol means 240 mg/dL or more.
• It causes no symptoms, so many people don't know they have it.
• A simple blood test measures it.

How common it is

• Adults 20 and older, 2017–2020: 10% had total cholesterol above 240 mg/dL, and about 17% had HDL ("good") cholesterol below 40 mg/dL.
• In numbers: about 86 million US adults 20 and older are above 200 mg/dL, and nearly 25 million are above 240 mg/dL.
• Children: about 7% of young people aged 6 to 19 have high total cholesterol.
• Treatment: just over half — 54.5%, or 47 million people — of the adults who could benefit from cholesterol medicine are taking it.

High cholesterol among adults 18 and older, by county, 2018–2020. Map: CDC.

The counties with the highest rates (the top fifth) are clustered mainly in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Maine, South Carolina and Kansas, with pockets in Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Washington.

By race, ethnicity and sex

Share of adults 20 and older with total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or more, 2017–2020:

Women have higher rates than men in every group except Asian adults, where the pattern reverses: Asian men have the highest rate in the table.

Getting checked

• About two thirds of US adults say they have had their cholesterol checked in the last 5 years.
• Most healthy adults should be checked every 4 to 6 years.
• People with heart disease, diabetes or a family history of high cholesterol may need checks more often.

Related CDC fact pages

• Facts About Stroke
• Facts About Heart Disease
• Facts About Hypertension

Sources

Based on "High Cholesterol Facts," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The page's artery illustration, a stock image, is not reproduced.