the age of 80). in some countries such as japan, cvd is more common than ad. in 2012, 6.4 million adults from the us had a stroke, which corresponds to 2.7% of the us. this is approximately 129,000 deaths in 2013. geographically, a "stroke belt" in the us has long been known, similar to the "diabetes belt" which includes all of mississippi and parts of alabama, arkansas, florida, georgia, kentucky, louisiana, north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania, south carolina, tennessee, texas, virginia, and west virginia.