Application of the 2014 Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8) hypertension guidelines to the US population could result in almost 6 million fewer adults receiving antihypertensive medications than under the previous JNC 7 recommendations. In addition, the new criteria, which are less-stringent than the JNC 7 guidelines, would classify an additional ∼13.5 million adults as having met blood pressure targets than previously. The reclassification would primarily affect individuals aged ≥60 years, many of whom have comorbidities. These estimates have been made on the basis of the JNC 8 recommendations being applied to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and extrapolated to the general population of the USA.