docs/us_health/health_mortality_overall_county_year

health_mortality_overall_county_year

Comprehensive mortality snapshot per county combining all tracked causes. CHR 2025 spine (YPLL, CVD, drug OD, suicide, firearm) joined with NCI cancer, CDC WONDER alcohol (pooled 2018-2024), NHTSA FARS (most recent year), and CDC USALEEP life expectancy. Deaths-of-despair composite computed.

tier aTier A - CDC WONDER actual death counts (not modeled estimates), age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard.

grain

county-year

years

1990 – 2024

cadence

Annual (CDC WONDER final mortality, ~1.5-year lag)

overview

3,142 counties x 35 years (1990-2024) = 109,980 rows. All-cause death counts from CDC WONDER cover 1999-2024; earlier county-years carry PEP population denominators with deaths null. Legacy CT/AK FIPS reconciled downstream.

current vintage — 2024

history — Components vary; USALEEP single tract-rolled vintage

provenance

source & licensing

authority

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

dataset

CDC WONDER Multiple Cause of Death (all-cause) + Census PEP

source url

https://wonder.cdc.gov/

methodology

https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/health-data/methodology-and-sources%20+%20https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/usaleep/usaleep.html%20+%20https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/main.html%20+%20https://seer.cancer.gov/about/factsheets/SEER_Overview.pdf

license

Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)

citation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Multiple Cause of Death 1999-2024; Census Bureau Population Estimates Program.

schema

fields

name	type	definition
age_adjusted_rate	float64 · rate per 100k	Age-adjusted death rate per 100,000, 2000 US standard (10 harmonized bands).
all_cause_deaths	int64 · count	All-cause death count from CDC WONDER (cause_code all_cause). Null before 1999.
country_idkey	string	ISO alpha-2 country code (always US).
county_idkey	string	5-character county FIPS code.
crude_rate	float64 · rate per 100k	Crude all-cause death rate per 100,000 population.
population	int64 · count	Census PEP population denominator for the county-year.
premature_deaths	int64 · count	Deaths before age 75.
reliability_tier	string	Source reliability tier (A - WONDER actual counts).
state_idkey	string	2-character state FIPS code.
yearkey	int64	Calendar year (1990-2024).
ypll_75	float64	Years of potential life lost before age 75 (band-midpoint approximation).
ypll_rate_per_100k	float64 · rate per 100k	YPLL-75 rate per 100,000 population.

relationships

joins

primary key

county_id, state_id, country_id, year

common joins

dim.geographies on county_id

health_mortality_despair_county_year on (county_id, year)

health_mortality_violence_county_year on (county_id, year)

scorecard_health_county on county_id

usage

how to use this table

method

All-cause deaths grouped by county-year from int_mortality_wonder (cause_code all_cause); crude_rate = deaths/population x 100k; age_adjusted_rate via the 2000 US standard over 10 bands; ypll_75 sums (75 - band midpoint) x deaths for bands under 75.

do not use for

Cause-specific mortality (all-cause only); sub-county geography; individual-age YPLL (band-midpoint approximation).

known issues

Heavy mixed-vintage problem: USALEEP life expectancy is from 2010-2015 tract data; this is the only national source at sub-state grain. CHR mortality is mostly crude.

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last updated · Jul 7, 2026