How long can you live with congestive heart failure?

Although treatments for heart failure are improving all the time, 50 percent of people with the diagnosis can expect to live less than five years, states WebMD. Ninety percent of those with advanced forms of the disease live less than one year.

It is difficult to say how long a specific individual may live after a congestive heart failure diagnosis, because life expectancy is an individual matter with various factors that affect prognosis. Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet the body’s basic needs. In the United States, heart failure kills 55,000 people each year, reports WebMD.