U.S. states with highest asthma death rates 2020

Mississippi, Hawaii, and New Mexico were the top three leading U.S states by number of deaths due to asthma per million population as of 2020. Mississippi reported 18.2 deaths per million population with asthma as the underlying cause of death, while Hawaii reported 17.5 deaths. In 2019, around 41 percent of people in the United States with asthma reported experiencing an asthma episode in the past 12 months.

Prevalence

As of 2019, almost eight percent of individuals in the United States were reported to currently have asthma. West Virginia is the leading state by lifetime prevalence of asthma among adults, followed by Utah and Kentucky. West Virginia and Rhode Island had the highest current prevalence of asthma among adults in the United States.

Treatment

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the airways of the lungs, and can cause shortness of breath, tightness or pain in the chest, coughing, and wheezing. Asthma symptoms can be treated through corticosteroid inhalers, such as albuterol. The number of albuterol prescriptions in the United States reached almost 61 million in 2019. The current out-of-pocket cost for albuterol is just over 14 U.S. dollars.