
CHD Fact Sheet
CHD Facts

1. Nearly 1 in every 100 babies is born with a CHD.

2. Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects.

3. Each year, approximately 40,000 babies in the U.S. are born with a congenital heart defect.

4. Approximately 2 to 3 million individuals in the U.S. are thought to be living with CHD’s.

5. CHD’s are the most common cause of infant death due to birth defects.

6. Approximately 100-200 deaths are due to unrecognized heart disease in newborns each year.

7. Approximately 25% of children born with a CHD will need heart surgery or other interventions to survive.

8. About 1 in 4 babies born with a heart defect has a critical CHD.

9. 100,000 babies across the world won't make it to their first birthday because of CHD.

10. CHD is 2X more common than Childhood cancer yet pediatric cancer research gets 5X more funding.


1. congenital heart disease (CHD): an abnormality in your heart’s structure that you’re born with.

2. congenital heart defect: an abnormality in your heart’s structure that you’re born with; there are many different types of congenital heart defects.

3. transposition of the great arteries (TGA): a CHD that occurs when the two main arteries going out of the heart—the pulmonary artery and the aorta—are switched in position, or “transposed.”

4. neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU): an intensive-care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants.

5. cerebrospinal fluid (CSF): a clear, watery fluid that fills the space between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater in the brain.

6. brain hemorrhage: a type of stroke that’s caused by an artery in the brain bursting and causing localized bleeding in the surrounding tissues.

7. ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt: a surgical procedure in which a surgical tube is placed in the body running from the brain to the abdomen.  The shunt drains excess CSF fluid into the abdomen.

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  2. Jenkins KJ, Correa A, Feinstein JA, Botto L, Britt AE, Daniels SR,Elixson M, Warnes CA, Webb CL. Non inherited risk factors and congenital cardiovascular defects: current knowledge: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young: endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Circulation. 2007;115 (23): 2995-3014.
  3. Patel SS, Burns TL. Non-genetic risk factors and congenital heart defects. Pediatr Cardiol. 2013;34(7):1535-55.
  4. Medical Dictionary Online. Retrieved from http://www.online-medical-dictionary.org/