How old is YOUR heart? Free online calculator reveals your risk of developing heart disease in next 30 years

A first-of-its-kind online calculator may now predict people’s risk of developing heart issues, experts say.

Figures show premature deaths from cardiovascular problems in the UK, such as heart attacks and strokes, have hit their highest level in more than a decade. 

Experts have also previously warned how heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, but an estimated 80 per cent of cases are preventable.

Now, US scientists have designed a a free tool for adults aged between 30 and 59 to calculate their 30 year risk of developing the condition. 

The calculator, accessible here, uses answers to a few simple questions about blood pressure, age, sex, diabetes and smoking status and other common measures of health like BMI.

It also uses cholesterol level readings to help determine a user’s score — a percentile rank among 100 peers of the same age and sex. 

Dr Sadiya Khan, an expert in cardiovascular epidemiology at Northwestern University in Chicago and co-creator of the calculator, said: ‘This is the first time percentiles have been translated and applied to long-term risk for heart disease.

‘When a patient sees they are in the 90th percentile, we hope that this will serve as a wake-up call that risk starts early and prevention efforts and activities can reduce that risk and should not be put off.

‘We don’t want to wait until it’s too late, and someone has had an event. Consider it like saving for retirement. We have to start now.

‘A 30-year time horizon is difficult for most people to grasp. 

‘So, we hope that being able to compare your long-term risk to others in the same age makes the information more relatable, and therefore actionable.

‘Presenting risk as percentiles can also be more helpful to motivate patients, because they see how their risk compares with peers, much like standardized tests or growth charts put these measurements in context.’

To create the tool, the team from Northwestern University, analysed the health data of almost 8,000 adults aged 30 to 59, who did not have heart disease. 

They then used the Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events (PREVENT) equations, developed by the American Heart Association, which itself uses data from tens of thousands of American adults over 30 to predict heart disease risk. 

Dr Khan was involved in the original 2023 study that laid out the PREVENT equations. 

With the new tool, the researchers discovered that men had a higher long-term risk than women at every age.

But Dr Khan noted that the ‘risk for heart disease for women catches up with time’.

She added: ‘This is why having sex-specific tools like this percentile calculator is important.’

Researchers also stressed that the tool is designed to encourage patients to think more closely about their heart and lifestyle factors that may boost heart health but should not replace doctors appointments. 

The calculator comes amid a rise in heart-related deaths in the UK, which have soared by 18 per cent—from 18,693 to 21,975—between 2019 and 2023.

According to the British Heart Foundation, there has also been a 21 per cent increase in people being diagnosed with heart failure since 2020—the highest on record.

The British Heart Foundation analysis revealed an 83 per cent surge in the number of patients waiting for planned heart treatment in England, from the start of the decade to March 2025.

Waiting lists have also grown in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The charity warned that the shift marks a reversal of decades of progress, during which annual deaths from heart attacks and strokes had halved since the 1960s.

Experts suggest the rise may be fuelled by unhealthy diets and increased consumption of processed foods, the effects of Covid on the heart and circulatory system, and disruption to GP and hospital care.