You probably picture a stroke as something that happens in a person's late seventies or eighties.
Many of us have an older relative who had one. That picture no longer lines up with the real numbers.
A new Global Burden of Disease analysis in Neuroepidemiology counted 13.2 million new strokes worldwide in 2023.
The same year, stroke killed 6.8 million people. Nearly 105 million people were living with the effects of a previous stroke.
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More than half of those new strokes, 52 percent, now occur in people under 70.
The three-decade trend
Between 1990 and 2023, the age-standardized death rate from stroke fell by 52 percent. The incidence rate fell by 25 percent. By those measures, prevention is working.
Yet in the same window, the raw count of new strokes climbed 73 percent. Deaths rose 22 percent.
Population growth and aging explain part of the gap. Earlier exposure to high blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes explains much of the rest, according to the researchers led by Valery L. Feigin of Auckland University of Technology.
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About 1.9 million strokes a year now hit people ages 15 to 49. The team ties that rise to childhood obesity trends that surface in mid-life as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Why uncontrolled blood pressure drives most of the burden
High systolic blood pressure remains the single biggest cause. The analysis attributes nearly 58 percent of the global stroke disease burden to it.
The problem is that most people cannot feel it. Only around one in five people notice any physical sign of elevated blood pressure. Feigin and colleagues describe it as a silent killer.
Many only find out something is wrong after a stroke or a heart attack.
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About half of people prescribed blood pressure medication stop taking it within months, often once a reading looks normal.
Current US guidance is firm about where the number should sit.
The 2025 high blood pressure guideline from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology sets a treatment target below 130/80 mm Hg for adults with hypertension.
For every 10 mm Hg drop in systolic pressure, stroke risk falls by about 27 percent.
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What to watch for in yourself and the people around you
Signs of a stroke appear suddenly. They include a drooping face, weakness on one side, slurred speech, and trouble seeing or walking. The right response is to call 911 at once.
Brief episodes that pass within minutes can be an early warning that too many people dismiss.
If your last blood pressure check was more than a year ago, that is the practical starting point.
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This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.