World Heart Day 2026

Don't Miss a Beat: how Cities@Heart and its partners marked World Heart Day 2026

World Heart Day (29 September) is a global moment to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the world's leading cause of death. This year, partners across the Cities@Heart consortium marked the day with a webinar in Belfast, a public campaign in İzmir, and a Dress Red Day in Utrecht, alongside a week-long online campaign from the project.

Why World Heart Day matters

CVD claims more than 20 million lives worldwide each year. According to the World Heart Federation (WHF), around 80% of those deaths are linked to risk factors that can be prevented or managed. In the European Union, CVD causes around 1.7 million deaths a year and costs the economy an estimated €282 billion. Outcomes also vary widely: CVD death rates differ up to eightfold between Member States, and often vary considerably between neighbourhoods within the same city.

This is the gap Cities@Heart aims to close. Funded with €15 million from the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU), the project brings together municipalities, universities, health services, patient and professional organisations, and industry partners. Together they will develop, pilot, and evaluate city-level strategies that reduce both the burden of CVD and health inequalities. The work takes place in seven pilot cities: Belfast, Birmingham, Cork, İzmir, Łódź, Udine, and Utrecht.

Joining the global #DontMissABeat movement

This year, Cities@Heart joined the World Heart Federation's "Don't Miss a Beat" campaign. The campaign asks people to see the signs of heart disease, take steps to protect their heart, and call on leaders to act. In the days running up to World Heart Day, our LinkedIn channel ran a five-part series under the theme "Healthy Hearts, Equal Chances", linking these global messages to life in Europe's cities.

• Heart disease is hiding in plain sight. CVD causes around one in three deaths, more than any other condition, yet much of it can be prevented. We invited followers to check in on their own heart health and on the people around them.

• Same city, different chances. Access to CVD prevention, detection, and treatment can vary greatly within a single neighbourhood. Two people living streets apart can face very different odds of a healthy heart. The project's first work package is mapping these gaps in each pilot city so they can be addressed city by city.

• Cities hold the key. Around 75% of Europeans live in cities, and that share is expected to reach 84% by 2050. Air quality, walkability, and access to healthy food all shape heart health, which makes cities central to prevention. Cities@Heart is working with its partner cities to help make the healthy choice the easier choice.

• Prevention is a team effort. Protecting hearts takes citizens, health workers, employers, and local leaders working together. The series also highlighted the European Commission's EU Screening Week (28 September to 4 October), which encouraged people to "know their numbers": blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

A policy moment: the EU Safe Hearts Plan

This year's campaign took place against an important policy backdrop. In December 2025, the European Commission published the European Safe Hearts Plan - the EU's first dedicated plan for tackling CVD. It supports Member States across health promotion, prevention, early detection, treatment, care, and rehabilitation. It also commits to flagship initiatives that include standardised cardiovascular health checks, digitally enabled prevention, and a health inequalities dashboard.

As part of this and the Know Your Numbers campaign, the EU organised the EU Screening Week from 28 September to 4 October to raise awareness of key cardiometabolic risk factors and to encourage people to speak to a health professional about checks such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.

Belfast: People and Participation webinar

On World Heart Day, Belfast Healthy Cities hosted the Cities@Heart People and Participation webinar. Experts in CVD shared different perspectives, all grounded in a people-centred approach to reducing inequalities in access to cardiovascular care.

Host Jacqueline O'Hagan said:

"The webinar offered an opportunity to hear from experts in the topic of Cardiovascular Disease, sharing different perspectives but all with the same underpinning values. The webinar also allowed us to continue to raise the profile and awareness of both the challenges of CVD here in Belfast and the opportunities that the Cities@Heart Consortium bring."

Our thanks go to speakers Sanne Hoepel (UMC Utrecht) and Donna Fitzsimons (Queens University Belfast), to Belfast Healthy Cities, and to everyone who joined.

Missed it? Watch the full recording here.

İzmir: life-saving technology across the city

In İzmir, the Metropolitan Municipality marked World Heart Day with a Turkish-language public campaign. It introduced İzmir as one of Cities@Heart's seven participating cities and as an official project partner developing city-level solutions to CVD.

The campaign highlighted a practical step towards faster emergency response. The municipality is installing 30 new automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at metro, İZBAN suburban rail, ferry, and transfer points across the city, so that help is closer to hand in the event of a cardiac arrest. As the campaign put it: early response saves lives.

Utrecht: Dress Red Day at the Heart Check Point

In Utrecht, researchers from UMC Utrecht, the Cities@Heart coordinator, marked Dress Red Day at the Dutch Heart Foundation's (Hartstichting) Heart Check Point in the Hoog Catharijne shopping centre. They spoke with members of the public about cardiovascular disease in women.

The event drew attention to research on sex differences in CVD, an area where better knowledge is essential for improving prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. One researcher described being proud to contribute to that work and to share it directly with the public.

Looking ahead

From Belfast to İzmir to Utrecht, this year's activities showed the range of ways cities and their partners can raise awareness of CVD. They included expert dialogue, public information, new emergency equipment, and direct conversations with citizens. They also reflect the principle behind Cities@Heart: healthy hearts should not depend on where you live.

World Heart Day is one moment in the year, but the work continues. Over the coming months, Cities@Heart will keep mapping health inequalities in the pilot cities and working with communities to shape the interventions that follow.

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Follow Cities@Heart on LinkedIn for more regular updates on our activities, our partners' activities and upcoming events.