⚠Planning model — not a validated county burden estimate. 63,379 DALYs/yr from CDC WONDER 2020–22 age-specific mortality, CDC PLACES 2024 prevalence and IHME GBD 2021 weights, on a US-2000 age-standardized basis. Method differs from this site's rural counties — see the comparability note. → Full methods & data quality notes
Disability-Adjusted Life Years · ranked by burden · Washtenaw County 2020–22
Abbreviations: DALY = disability-adjusted life year · YLL = years of life lost · YLD = years lived with disability · CVD = cardiovascular disease · SUD = substance use disorder · COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Key findings — why Ann Arbor looks different
Urban college county profile vs Michigan's rural counties
Cancer-led, not injury-led
Cancer (17,305 DALYs) and CVD (15,286) dominate — a healthy, older-surviving population where chronic disease is the main burden.
Substance use is #3
133 drug + alcohol deaths/yr are directly observed here (12,140 DALYs). In small rural counties these counts are statistically suppressed and invisible.
Young denominator
A large 15–24 student population pulls the crude rate down; age-standardization (YLL 8,251/100k) is what makes the comparison to older counties fair.
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One-page county summary
Download the Washtenaw County Brief Coming soon
A polished one-page PDF summary for public health leaders, grant writers, and community stakeholders. Includes top burden drivers, planning-grade DALY estimates, and practical implications. Planning-grade estimate. Not a peer-reviewed study or official GBD estimate.
Age-specific YLL (GBD 2019 reference life table) · YLD from CDC PLACES age-adjusted prevalence · no discounting (WHO standard) · population 367,730
Condition
Deaths/yr
Mortality source
YLL
YLD
DALYs
% of total
Cancer
548
observed
11,113
6,192
17,305
27.3%
CVD (heart disease)
616
observed
9,648
5,638
15,286
24.1%
Substance use (drug+alcohol)
133
observed
5,417
6,723
12,140
19.2%
Mental health (suicide + depression)
47
observed
2,137
5,509
7,647
12.1%
COPD
94
observed
1,558
2,987
4,544
7.2%
Stroke
157
observed
1,992
2,338
4,331
6.8%
Diabetes
40
observed
805
1,322
2,126
3.4%
TOTAL
1,635
—
32,670
30,709
63,379
100%
All seven causes are directly observed by cause × ten-year age group (CDC WONDER, 2020–22 pooled, annualized). A small number of young-age cells were statistically suppressed (counts 1–9) and imputed conservatively; the effect on the total is under ±2%. Rows use unrounded estimates, so YLL + YLD may differ from the DALY column by ±1.
Economic Burden
Human Capital + Value of Statistical Life · Washtenaw County pop. 367,730
Human Capital Method
$3.93B
63,379 DALYs × $62,000 GDP/capita (Michigan, BEA)
Annual lost economic productivity from premature death (YLL) and disability (YLD). Cancer alone is ~$1.07B in human-capital terms.
Willingness-to-pay standard for federal cost-benefit analysis (HHS, EPA, DOT). Mortality only; morbidity adds the human-capital figure.
Note: Human Capital ($3.93B) is the conservative productivity floor; VSL ($17.2B) reflects societal willingness-to-pay to prevent death. Both derive from observed CDC WONDER mortality and CDC PLACES 2024 prevalence. Figures are planning-grade, not audited fiscal estimates.
Evidence-Based Recommendations
Illustrative planning priorities from the burden profile · not prescriptive
1
Cancer early-detection outreach
Cancer · 17,305 DALYs · 548 deaths/yr · AI-triaged screening reminders for the highest-burden cancers; partner with Michigan Medicine and employer health plans.
Strong
2
Campus & young-adult mental health
Mental health · 7,647 DALYs · digital screening + stepped-care routing for the large 15–24 student population.
Strong
3
Overdose prevention — naloxone + MOUD
Substance use · 12,140 DALYs · 133 deaths/yr · naloxone access and Medication for Opioid Use Disorder at primary care and campus health.
Strong
4
Cardiovascular prevention
CVD · 15,286 DALYs · hypertension control and statin-adherence programs across primary care.
Method & comparability notes (read before comparing counties)
Two method generations. Washtenaw and Wayne use the v2 age-standardized method (age-specific life expectancy, US-2000 standardization, observed substance-use & suicide mortality). The rural counties (Isabella, Clare, Midland, Gratiot) use the earlier v1 crude method. Rates across the two groups are not directly comparable and should not be ranked against each other — compare within a group only.
"Age-standardized" applies to YLL. Only the mortality (YLL) rate is genuinely age-standardized (8,251/100k). YLD has no age-specific prevalence in CDC PLACES, so it is reported as a crude rate (8,351/100k). We show them separately rather than blend them under one label.
Substance-use prevalence for YLD is indicative, not measured. CDC PLACES has no SUD measure, so the SUD disability component uses a Michigan-derived rate applied uniformly; it does not reflect local variation. SUD mortality (the YLL part) is directly observed.
Substance-use and suicide mortality overlap slightly. Drug-poisoning deaths with suicidal intent (X60–X64) appear in both categories, so the sum of those two causes' YLL is a modest upper bound.
Ann Arbor ⊆ Washtenaw County. Mortality is only available at county resolution; this page describes Washtenaw County, which contains Ann Arbor.