United States: The CDC report reveals that high cholesterol affects nine percent of American adults. Therefore, it can be concluded that approximately 11.3 of the adult population are suffering from high cholesterol levels in their arteries. Information from 2021 to 2023 reveals that this figure remained the same as soon as the first cholesterol-lowering medicines called statins were launched in the 1980s and 1990s.
In the HealthDay report, a team, led by CDC researcher Margaret Carroll, using these new prevalence figures showed that ‘High total cholesterol prevalence declined from 1999-2000 to 2013-2014 and then did not change significantly in the years since.”
However, the ratio of men and women having high total cholesterol was more or less the same with 10.6 % and 11.9 % respectively said the researchers.
The new data were obtained from a huge ongoing federal health interview survey of Americans.
Other trends Carroll and his team identified include decline in percentage of adults with unhealthy or low total cholesterol levels over the decades needed for a risky low level of blood HDL “good” cholesterol.
The report revealed that completely eradicating this favourable type of cholesterol from the bloodstream of adults in U.S. was unhealthily low and prevailed between 13.8% from 2021—2023. That has improved from 22.2 percent that the CDC researchers observed in the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

There were some deviations based on gender and age When it came to the amount of cholesterol among them.
For example, rates of total cholesterol peaked in middle age: 16. According to the report 7% of adults aged 40 to 59 years had high total cholesterol but as the population advanced in their 60s and entered into what might be called their ‘Medicare years’ the incidence of high cholesterol reduced to 11.3%.
Men with low level of HDL were affected more than the women with the prevalence rates being 21.5% and 6.6% respectively.
That’s not a big surprise, since experts have long known that one of the health benefits of estrogen is a lift in levels of HDL cholesterol.
Conversely, they may not opt to do so before reaching menopausal age, says a Cleveland Clinic specialist.
“When estrogen levels lessen, LDL cholesterol rises and HDL cholesterol lowers,” the clinic blog by cardiologist Dr. Leslie Cho reads. “That can lead to fat and cholesterol plaque formation in every artery that is part of the heart.
In the report high total cholesterol was actually defined as blood levels of the total cholesterol of almost 240 milligrams per decilier or higher. Low HDL cholesterol was defined as blood levels of 40 mg/dl or lower.