Most cardiac arrests occur at home, not in public settings. Survival rates remain low, with only about 10% of out-of-hospital patients in the United States surviving to hospital discharge. This data underscores the critical importance of immediate bystander intervention.
Key Takeaways
- 70% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home, not in public settings
- 4.4 million people received emergency care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest globally in 2016
- In the United States, overall survival to hospital discharge for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was 10.8% in 2019
- 79% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are witnessed by someone else (family, friend, or stranger) in a typical Utstein-style reporting pattern
- Bystander CPR increases the odds of survival substantially—reported adjusted odds ratios commonly fall between 1.5 and 3.0 across multiple observational studies
- Every 1-minute delay to defibrillation is associated with a 10% decrease in survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (classic resuscitation literature relationship)
- AHA recommends a first epinephrine dose at an appropriate time during ALS and subsequent doses of 1 mg every 3–5 minutes during refractory arrest
- ERC 2021 recommends targeting end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) values (e.g., >10–20 mmHg) as a marker of effective CPR and ROSC prediction where available
- Public access defibrillation programs reduce time to defibrillation by enabling earlier AED use by bystanders
- AEDs in airports and other venues are often placed at high-visibility locations; some implementations report mean access times under 1 minute (system-specific)
- Wearable or connected device ecosystems for emergency response grew rapidly in the late 2010s and are increasingly integrated with dispatcher and AED location services (multi-vendor market development metrics)
- $14,000–$20,000 estimated cost per life-year gained for dispatcher-assisted CPR and public access defibrillation interventions in some cost-effectiveness analyses (varies by scenario)
- $20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is a commonly reported benchmark threshold for many health-economic evaluations of AED and CPR public programs (as used in studies)
- AED public access programs are frequently found cost-effective relative to health system willingness-to-pay thresholds in published economic evaluations
Most out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home, and faster bystander CPR and AED shocks can dramatically improve survival.
Related reading
01 · Category
Incidence & Epidemiology8 stats
01
70% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home, not in public settings
02
4.4 million people received emergency care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest globally in 2016
03
In the United States, overall survival to hospital discharge for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was 10.8% in 2019
04
1.3 million cardiac arrests occur annually in the European Union (EU) and UK combined
05
Approximately 80% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests have an initial shockable rhythm (or are eligible for shock) depending on location and detection—overall proportions vary, with shockable rhythms typically around 20–30% in population studies
06
In the United States, 11% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases receive an AED shock before EMS arrival (as reported in the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium era metrics)
07
10% survival to hospital discharge is a common benchmark reported across many regional systems for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
08
In-hospital cardiac arrest survival to discharge is often reported in the range of 20–25% across large datasets
Interpretation
Incidence & Epidemiology Interpretation
For the incidence and epidemiology of cardiac arrest, most cases are common and hard to reach because about 70% of out-of-hospital arrests happen at home and only 10.8% of US cases survive to hospital discharge in 2019, even though 4.4 million people worldwide received emergency care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 2016.
02 · Category
Response & Outcomes10 stats
01
79% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are witnessed by someone else (family, friend, or stranger) in a typical Utstein-style reporting pattern
02
Bystander CPR increases the odds of survival substantially—reported adjusted odds ratios commonly fall between 1.5 and 3.0 across multiple observational studies
03
Every 1-minute delay to defibrillation is associated with a 10% decrease in survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (classic resuscitation literature relationship)
04
Hands-only CPR can be delivered with no breaths for lay rescuers, and it improves outcomes compared with no CPR in randomized and observational evidence
05
Survival is higher when AED application occurs within 3–5 minutes of collapse compared with longer response times
06
First documented rhythm is shockable in about 25–30% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases in many EMS registries
07
Cerebral performance category (CPC) outcomes after OHCA are typically worse than survival-to-discharge, with favorable neurologic outcomes often below 10–15% in population studies
08
In a large U.S. registry analysis, receipt of bystander CPR was associated with higher rates of ROSC and survival to discharge
09
In a meta-analysis, AED use by laypersons increased survival to hospital discharge compared with no AED use
10
In several studies, average EMS arrival times for OHCA are commonly in the 7–10 minute range depending on region
Interpretation
Response & Outcomes Interpretation
In the Response and Outcomes sense, faster and better bystander care makes a clear difference, since survival drops about 10% for every 1 minute defibrillation is delayed while witnessed arrests are 79% and early AED use within 3 to 5 minutes is linked to higher survival.
03 · Category
Clinical Guidelines2 stats
01
AHA recommends a first epinephrine dose at an appropriate time during ALS and subsequent doses of 1 mg every 3–5 minutes during refractory arrest
02
ERC 2021 recommends targeting end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) values (e.g., >10–20 mmHg) as a marker of effective CPR and ROSC prediction where available
Interpretation
Clinical Guidelines Interpretation
For the clinical guidelines category, both AHA and ERC emphasize that timely, repeatable dosing of epinephrine at 1 mg every 3–5 minutes during refractory arrest and using EtCO2 targets of roughly over 10 to 20 mmHg when available are key, evidence based markers to guide ALS and predict effective outcomes.
More related reading
04 · Category
Industry Trends12 stats
01
Public access defibrillation programs reduce time to defibrillation by enabling earlier AED use by bystanders
02
AEDs in airports and other venues are often placed at high-visibility locations; some implementations report mean access times under 1 minute (system-specific)
03
Wearable or connected device ecosystems for emergency response grew rapidly in the late 2010s and are increasingly integrated with dispatcher and AED location services (multi-vendor market development metrics)
04
Cardiac arrest recognition and dispatch support adoption of digital tools has increased in EMS systems, with many jurisdictions now using computerized dispatch and CPR coaching
05
Therapeutic hypothermia/targeted temperature management market adoption expanded due to guideline updates—many hospitals implemented cooling protocols, increasing standardized care coverage
06
Smart AED cabinets with alarms and location services improve retrieval and deployment monitoring compared with manual checks in pilot studies
07
Mechanical CPR devices have been increasingly adopted by EMS agencies to maintain consistent compressions during resuscitation
08
Dispatcher-assisted CPR programs increased bystander CPR rates in multiple community trials and implementations
09
In several health systems, AED placement density per 1,000 population correlates with bystander AED use rates (reported in urban EMS research studies)
10
Hospitals increasingly integrate resuscitation analytics platforms to monitor compression quality and compliance with protocols
11
Mobile smartphone programs and telecommunicator tools for CPR guidance were deployed in multiple cities and evaluated in observational outcome studies
12
Cardiac arrest centers of excellence and structured regionalization models expanded, with participating systems showing improved process metrics in some studies
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Industry Trends show that cardiac arrest care is accelerating through faster, smarter access and response technologies, with public access defibrillation and high visibility AED placements helping cut mean access times to under 1 minute while wearable and dispatch integrated digital tools have expanded rapidly in the late 2010s.
05 · Category
Cost & Economics11 stats
01
$14,000–$20,000 estimated cost per life-year gained for dispatcher-assisted CPR and public access defibrillation interventions in some cost-effectiveness analyses (varies by scenario)
02
$20,000per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is a commonly reported benchmark threshold for many health-economic evaluations of AED and CPR public programs (as used in studies)
03
AED public access programs are frequently found cost-effective relative to health system willingness-to-pay thresholds in published economic evaluations
04
Mechanical CPR devices cost more than traditional manual CPR; cost-effectiveness depends on deployment frequency and system logistics (reported in published analyses)
05
Costs of post-resuscitation care (ICU stay, rehabilitation) can drive total economic burden substantially in cost-of-illness studies
06
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest imposes substantial productivity and healthcare costs; some country-specific analyses estimate hundreds of millions in annual costs
07
Hospitalization costs following OHCA survival to discharge can exceed tens of thousands of dollars per survivor in U.S. administrative dataset studies
08
Implementation costs for cooling/targeted temperature management include device and protocol training expenditures that vary by hospital size (reported as budget line items in hospital-based studies)
09
Training costs for CPR/AED programs are often treated as fixed per trainee costs; many programs show cost-effectiveness when reach and retention are sufficient (economic modeling studies)
10
In cost-effectiveness modeling, incremental cost per QALY gained for early defibrillation strategies is often reported within health-economics accepted ranges in high-coverage scenarios
11
EMS system investments in resuscitation quality monitoring can be partially offset by improved survival and reduced neurologic disability rates (modeled in health-economic studies)
Interpretation
Cost & Economics Interpretation
From a cost and economics standpoint, the evidence suggests that dispatcher-assisted CPR and public access defibrillation interventions often sit around widely accepted value thresholds, with reported estimates such as roughly $14,000 to $20,000 per life-year gained and $20,000 per QALY, while the overall economic burden can still climb substantially due to post-resuscitation ICU and rehabilitation costs and broader productivity losses.
report visual · Breakdown
Where Cardiac Arrests Happen & Who Witnesses Them
Most out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home and are witnessed by someone else, highlighting targets for bystander response and public-access AED placement.
70%
70% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home, not in public settings
30%
First documented rhythm is shockable in about 25–30% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases in many EMS registries
source-verifiedahajournals.org · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Timothy Grant. (2026, February 13). Cardiac Arrest Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cardiac-arrest-statistics
MLA
Timothy Grant. "Cardiac Arrest Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/cardiac-arrest-statistics.
Chicago
Timothy Grant. 2026. "Cardiac Arrest Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cardiac-arrest-statistics.
Sources & references
43 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+36 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)