Years of Potential Life Lost by Race and Socioeconomic Status

Finger Lakes Region, 2014-2016

The health impacts of combined race- and poverty-driven inequities lead to particularly poor health outcomes for the Black population. Racial discrimination undermines health even when incomes increase. Regardless of their socioeconomic status or ZIP code, Black residents in the Finger Lakes region experience a disproportionate rate of premature mortality compared to their White peers. The premature mortality (YPLL) rate for Blacks is on average 29% higher than their White peers living in areas with the same SES level.

This data visualization is part of Overloaded: The Heavy Toll of Poverty on Our Region's Health Report.

Methodology note: The SES index ranking was developed by Common Ground Health and calculated using a variety of socioeconomic indicators from the American Community Survey including average income, poverty rates, education levels, housing value, and homeownership. Each ZIP code is assigned a socioeconomic (SES) index ranking from 1 to 5. The lower SES ZIP codes tend to have lower average income, higher poverty rates, lower prevalence of college degrees, etc.

Methodology note: Years of potential life lost (YPLL) is a widely used measure to assess the rate of premature mortality. YPLL places a larger weight on the deaths of younger people, in contrast with overall mortality statistics which are dominated by deaths of the elderly. The YPLL rates in Common Ground Health analyses are derived using 75 years as the baseline. A death at age 65 has YPLL of 10, where as a death at age 35 has a YPLL of 40. The rates are calculated per 100,000 population and are age-sex adjusted to account for differences in population distribution.

Images are available for download at no cost and free of any copyright restrictions. We ask that you keep the Common Ground logo on the images to identify the source. To help us improve, we’d love to hear how you are using these resources. Email us at communications@commongroundhealth.org.

Share Insight