Years of Potential Life Lost Rate by Race/Ethnicity & Socioeconomic Status

The chart below looks at premature mortality (YPLL) rates by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) simultaneously. The data show a strong relationship between SES and premature mortality. YPLL rates are significantly higher in low SES areas. In addition, there are much higher rates of YPLL for African-Americans compared to white and Latinos at the same SES levels. YPLL rates for Latinos are notably lower than for whites. These racial/ethnic patterns are consistent with national data.

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.