6%

Percentage of adults with heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S., in 2010 — down from 6.7% in 2006. Experts credit the improvement to better treatments for high blood pressure and cholesterol and declines in smoking. According to the data, heart disease is more common in men (7.8%) than women (4.6%), in those with less than a high school education (9.2%) than college grads (4.6%), and in people 65 or older (19.8%) than those aged 45 to 64 (7.1%). Looked at by race, rates of heart disease were highest in American Indians/Alaska Natives (11.6%) and lowest in Asians of Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders (3.9%). Despite the overall decline, high rates of heart disease remain clustered in the southeastern part of the country — particularly in Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia — roughly where rates of obesity, diabetes and stroke are also high. [via CDC]