CPR Facts & Statistics

Date Published: October 2, 2024

Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Facts

• Each year EMS cares for more than 350,000 individuals in the United States experiencing a non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Approximately 90% of persons who experience an OHCA die.
• Survival to hospital discharge from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) after receiving treatment from emergency medical services (EMS) is less than 10% in the United States. (Source)
• Just over 70% of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the home, so the life you may save could be a family member or a friend.
• For the past 20 years, the survival rate for cardiac arrest has hovered around 10 percent for out-of-hospital incidences and 21 percent for in-hospital events, yet research shows that high-quality CPR has a significant impact on survival outcomes, whether inside or outside the hospital.
• Survival chances decrease by 10% for every minute that immediate CPR and use of an AED is delayed.
• Immediate CPR can triple the chance of survival.

Highlights from CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival) 2023 Annual Report (Source)

• 41.2% of patients received bystander CPR.
• 26.1% of patients survived hospital admission.
• 11.7% of patients who arrested in public had bystander applied AED.
• 10.2% of patients survived to hospital discharge.
• 79.6% of discharged patients had a positive neurological outcome (CPC 1 or 2).

• Etiology: In 2023, 82.4% of adult (>18 years of age) OHCAs were presumed to be of a cardiac cause. Other causes of adult OHCA included: respiratory/asphyxia (8.8%), drug overdose (7.0%), exsanguination/hemorrhage (0.7%), drowning/ submersion (0.5%), and other medical (0.6%) (Source).
• Demographics: In 2023, the majority of CARES patients were male (63.0%). Of the reported OHCA events, 97.3% were adults and 2.7% were children, aged 18 years and younger. The median age of OHCA patients was 65.0 years. The age distribution varied significantly between males and females, with females having a higher median age of arrest. (Source)
• Location of Arrest: The most common location for an OHCA is in a residential setting, with 71.4% of events occurring in a home. Other common arrest locations include nursing home (10.4%), public or commercial building (7.6%), street or highway (5.2%), and healthcare facility (3.0%). (Source)
• Early Defibrillation: With more than 30% of OHCAs occurring in public locations, the role of public access AEDs and community training have a large role to play in early defibrillation. However, the application of AEDs by bystanders remains relatively low, occurring after only 11.7% of public arrests. (Source)

Red Cross Training Facts and Statistics

• Every community is safer, thanks to the nearly 3.8 million people who train each year in Red Cross First Aid, CPR and AED classes.
• 5,000+ healthcare facilities choose Red Cross Resuscitation Suite BLS, ALS and PALS programs.
• More than 824,000 healthcare professionals and first responders trained in the Red Cross Resuscitation Suite™ programs, with approximately 3.6 million trained in BLS, ALS and PALS since 2016.