Being young and healthy does not make you immune to stroke, experts say Would you know if someone you loved was having a stroke? Dawn Jorgenson, Digital Content Editor, Graham Media Group Published: Tags: Woman holding her head. (Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels.) Stroke is something that affects many of us, whether it’s happened to us personally or to someone we love, but oftentimes, the perception is that strokes can only happen to older people. That assumption is wrong. Every year, about 795,000 people suffer a stroke in the United States, according to the Sanford Stroke Center, and while the majority of those people are over the age of 65, doctors say they've seen an uptick in the number of stroke cases in younger people.