11 States with The Highest Asthma Rates in The US

Whether some unknown environmental factors play a role in states with the highest asthma rates in the US, or not, they definitely have significantly higher asthma rates than the total US mean asthma rate.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), “Asthma is a common chronic disorder of the airways characterized by periods of reversible airflow obstruction known as asthma episodes or attacks”. An asthma attack can vary from mild to severe enough to become life-threatening, common symptoms being wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness or pain. Different people can have different triggers for asthma attacks, and they include exercise, airway infections, airborne allergens, air pollution, occupational exposures. There is no cure for asthma, and the cause is unknown in most cases. By avoiding asthma attack triggers, and using appropriate medicine asthma can be put under control, however, there are cases where asthma is resistant to all current therapies. Asthma is more common among obese adults, as well as among smokers. There is a significant difference in asthma rates for men and women, men having greater asthma rates in childhood, while women have greater asthma rates in adulthood, and there is no definitive answer why is that so. Most of the asthma deaths occur in persons aged 65 years and older, and are thought to be preventable with early treatment. Untreated asthma, can lead to missed school days, and missed work days, and in 2007 loss of productivity due to asthma attacks was estimated to have cost the society of $3.8 billion.

If you, or someone you care about has asthma, you might find useful our other article on 11 Best Cities to Live for People with Asthma in the World.

For our ranking we are using asthma prevalence in percent, data is for 2014 and taken from CDC; we will also include death rates for states for which they are available (data is for 2015), as well as estimated number of adults per state having asthma. Asthma death rate is estimated number of deaths per one million population per year, where the underlying cause of death is asthma. Only 39 states have asthma death rate statistics, and a lot of them have the same death rates, which results in only 29 ranks, so we will include death rate rank if we think it is interesting. Total asthma prevalence in percent for the US is 8.9 which translates into about 22,000,000 adults living with asthma in the US. We finally begin with our list of states with the highest asthma rates in the US.

9. Indiana – Asthma Rate 10.7 percent

Indiana has asthma prevalence rate of 10.7 percent, which gives us more than half a million adults with asthma living in that state. Indiana has asthma death rate of 12.9 which is fourth worst of all the states that have asthma death rate statistics.

9. New York – Asthma Rate 10.7 percent

State of New York is ranked 9th on our list of states with the highest asthma rates in the US, with asthma prevalence of 10.7 percent, and estimated 1,643,000 adults having asthma. However, it is the worst state on our list of states with the highest asthma rates, when it comes to asthma death rate, which is 13.1 or third worst of all states that have asthma death rate statistics.

8. Ohio – Asthma Rate 10.8 percent

With asthma prevalence rate of 10.8 percent, there is almost one million adults living with asthma in Ohio. Ohio is the sixth worst state when it comes to asthma death rate, which is 12.3.

8. Rhode Island – Asthma Rate 10.8 percent

Asthma rate of 10.8 percent gives us about 90,000 adults living in Rhode Island with asthma.

7. Michigan – Asthma Rate 10.9 percent

We are continuing our list of states with the highest asthma rates in the US with Michigan that has asthma prevalence rate of 10.9, which is more than 800,000 adults with asthma. Asthma death rate for Michigan is 10.3.

6. West Virginia – Asthma Rate 11 percent

With asthma prevalence rate of 11 percent, we get about 162,000 adults with asthma in West Virginia. West Virginia is the fifth worst state, when it comes to rank by asthma death rate, with a death rate of 12.5.

5. Vermont – Asthma Rate 11.3 percent

Asthma rate of 11.3 percent, translates to about 57,000 adults in Vermont suffering from asthma.

4. District of Columbia – Asthma Rate 11.5 percent

Asthma rate of 11.5 percent gives us about 62,000 adults in D.C. living with asthma.

3. Maine – Asthma Rate 11.6 percent

Asthma rate of 11.6 percent translates to about 123,000 adults in Maine having asthma.

2. Kentucky – Asthma Rate 11.9 percent

Kentucky has asthma prevalence rate of 11.9 percent, which is more than 400,000 adults with asthma. The death rate for Kentucky is 7.8.

1. Massachusetts – Asthma Rate 12 percent

While Massachusetts does have the highest asthma prevalence rate of 12 percent, which translates to 636,000 adults with asthma, its asthma death rate is not as high, and is 10.2 which translates to being the 17th worst of all states that have asthma death rate statistics. We finish our list of 11 states with the highest asthma rates in the US, with the state that has almost 35 percent bigger asthma rate than the US mean asthma rate.