Chronic Kidney Disease in North America
How Chronic Kidney Disease affects 3 countries in North America.
| # | Country | Share (%) |
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Across the 3 countries in North America tracked in this dataset, chronic kidney disease accounts for an average of 4.0% of total deaths. The regional average of 4.0% is notably higher than the global average of 3.6%, indicating that North America carries a disproportionate burden of chronic kidney disease mortality relative to the world. In North America, chronic kidney disease mortality is notably elevated relative to other high-income regions, reflecting the effects of high substance use, metabolic risk factors, and inequities in healthcare access despite substantial overall health spending.
North America has among the world's highest health expenditure per capita, yet faces distinctive mortality challenges including the opioid epidemic, firearm violence, rising metabolic disease, and significant health disparities linked to race and income. Within North America, significant variation exists. United States records the highest share at 4.8% of total deaths, while Canada has the lowest at 3.01%. This 1.8 percentage-point spread reflects differences in exposure, health system capacity, demographic structure, and risk factor prevalence across the region. Country-level pages provide detailed mortality breakdowns, time trends, and comparisons for each nation.
CKD prevention centres on managing its upstream drivers. Tight blood pressure control — particularly with ACE inhibitors or ARBs — slows nephropathy progression in both diabetic and non-diabetic kidney disease. Glycaemic control in diabetics, SGLT2 inhibitors (which confer kidney-protective benefits), avoidance of nephrotoxic drugs, and reduction of NSAID overuse are evidence-based strategies. Population screening of high-risk groups (diabetics, hypertensives) using urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio can identify early CKD, when interventions are most effective. Access to dialysis in low-resource settings remains a critical equity challenge.
The mortality estimates presented on this page are derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). The GBD synthesizes data from vital registration systems, verbal autopsies, cancer registries, and surveillance networks across more than 200 countries and territories. Death rates are expressed per 100,000 population and are age-standardized, which adjusts for differences in age structure between populations so that comparisons across countries and over time reflect genuine differences in mortality risk rather than demographic composition.
The dataset typically covers the period from 1990 to 2023, although availability varies by country and cause. When interpreting the figures for chronic kidney disease in North America, note that higher age-standardized rates indicate a greater mortality burden independent of whether a country's population is older or younger. Trends over time reveal whether public health interventions, economic development, and health system improvements have reduced or increased the toll of this condition in the region.
The cause-of-death categories used on this page follow the Global Burden of Disease cause hierarchy, a standardized classification that groups individual ICD-coded causes into clinically meaningful categories. The "share of deaths" metric shows what percentage of all deaths in a given country or region are attributed to chronic kidney disease. A rising share does not necessarily mean more people are dying from this cause — it may reflect success in reducing competing causes of death. Always examine both absolute rates and shares for a complete picture of mortality patterns in North America.