US Counties With the Highest Years of Potential Life Lost
2,897 US counties ranked by years of potential life lost, from highest to lowest. First are Buffalo County, SD (46,418), Dewey County, SD (41,916) and Oglala Lakota County, SD (40,417). The middle one of the 2,897 has 9,938.
What this measures
Years of life lost before age 75, per 100,000 people. A death at 25 counts as fifty years lost and a death at 70 as five, so earlier deaths count for more. Source: County Health Rankings.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | per 100,000 under 75 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 13,328 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 13,324 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 12,363 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12,185 |
| 5 | Alabama | 11,853 |
| 6 | Kentucky | 11,687 |
| 7 | Tennessee | 11,636 |
| 8 | Arkansas | 11,384 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 10,911 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 10,824 |
| 11 | Alaska | 10,028 |
| 12 | Missouri | 9,970 |
| 13 | Indiana | 9,810 |
| 14 | Ohio | 9,740 |
| 15 | Arizona | 9,457 |
| 16 | North Carolina | 9,441 |
| 17 | Georgia | 9,406 |
| 18 | District of Columbia | 9,241 |
| 19 | Wyoming | 8,978 |
| 20 | Delaware | 8,959 |
| 21 | South Dakota | 8,930 |
| 22 | Michigan | 8,798 |
| 23 | Montana | 8,782 |
| 24 | Nevada | 8,741 |
| 25 | Kansas | 8,589 |
| 26 | Florida | 8,553 |
| 27 | Maine | 8,421 |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 8,274 |
| 29 | Texas | 8,233 |
| 30 | Maryland | 8,091 |
| 31 | North Dakota | 8,020 |
| 32 | Illinois | 7,921 |
| 33 | Virginia | 7,739 |
| 34 | Wisconsin | 7,447 |
| 35 | Colorado | 7,405 |
| 36 | Oregon | 7,219 |
| 37 | Iowa | 7,201 |
| 38 | Vermont | 7,142 |
| 39 | Idaho | 7,099 |
| 40 | Nebraska | 7,072 |
| 41 | Washington | 6,781 |
| 42 | California | 6,744 |
| 43 | Connecticut | 6,703 |
| 44 | New York | 6,637 |
| 45 | New Hampshire | 6,622 |
| 46 | New Jersey | 6,562 |
| 47 | Rhode Island | 6,529 |
| 48 | Minnesota | 6,462 |
| 49 | Utah | 6,429 |
| 50 | Hawaii | 6,299 |
| 51 | Massachusetts | 5,975 |
More on years of potential life lost
- US Counties With the Lowest Years of Potential Life Lost
- Years of potential life lost by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.