⚠Planning model — not a validated county burden estimate. 442,251 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 · Wayne 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 Detroit looks different
Large urban county profile vs Michigan's rural counties and Ann Arbor
Cardiovascular-led
Heart disease is the dominant burden (144,104 DALYs, 5,531 deaths/yr) — a cardiovascular crisis on a scale distinct from cancer-led Ann Arbor.
Enormous substance-use burden
1,107 drug + alcohol deaths/yr (76,762 DALYs) — the #3 cause, reflecting Detroit's overdose crisis. Directly observed, not suppressed.
Deaths strike younger
The age-standardized YLL rate (14,177/100k) is 1.7× Ann Arbor's, driven by deaths occurring further below the survival benchmark.
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One-page county summary
Download the Wayne 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 1,773,082
Condition
Deaths/yr
Mortality source
YLL
YLD
DALYs
% of total
CVD (heart disease)
5,531
observed
111,087
33,017
144,104
32.6%
Cancer
3,502
observed
75,346
24,296
99,641
22.5%
Substance use (drug+alcohol)
1,107
observed
46,729
30,032
76,762
17.4%
COPD
736
observed
13,460
20,390
33,850
7.7%
Mental health (suicide + depression)
224
observed
9,993
22,951
32,944
7.4%
Stroke
1,017
observed
16,576
15,668
32,244
7.3%
Diabetes
642
observed
14,124
8,582
22,706
5.1%
TOTAL
12,759
—
287,315
154,936
442,251
100%
All seven causes are directly observed by cause × ten-year age group (CDC WONDER, 2020–22 pooled, annualized). Only a handful of young-age cells were statistically suppressed and imputed conservatively; the effect on the total is well under ±1%. Rows use unrounded estimates, so YLL + YLD may differ from the DALY column by ±1.
Economic Burden
Human Capital + Value of Statistical Life · Wayne County pop. 1,773,082
Human Capital Method
$27.4B
442,251 DALYs × $62,000 GDP/capita (Michigan, BEA)
Annual lost economic productivity from premature death (YLL) and disability (YLD). CVD alone is ~$8.9B 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 ($27.4B) is the conservative productivity floor; VSL ($134B) 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
Cardiovascular risk management at scale
CVD · 144,104 DALYs · 5,531 deaths/yr · AI-supported hypertension control and statin adherence — the single largest burden pool.
Strong
2
Overdose prevention — naloxone + MOUD
Substance use · 76,762 DALYs · 1,107 deaths/yr · naloxone saturation and MOUD expansion; the defining crisis of the county.
Strong
3
Community cancer screening equity
Cancer · 99,641 DALYs · navigation + AI-triaged screening reminders in underserved Detroit neighborhoods.
Strong
4
COPD & smoking cessation
COPD · 33,850 DALYs · integrated cessation programs and spirometry screening for at-risk residents.
Moderate–Strong
5
Mental-health access in high-need areas
Mental health · 32,944 DALYs · community screening and crisis services targeted to highest-need ZIP codes.
Moderate
Method & comparability notes (read before comparing counties)
Two method generations. Wayne and Washtenaw 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 (14,177/100k). YLD has no age-specific prevalence in CDC PLACES, so it is reported as a crude rate (8,738/100k). 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 likely understates a high-burden county like Wayne. 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.
Detroit ⊆ Wayne County. Mortality is only available at county resolution; this page describes Wayne County, which contains Detroit (about a third of the county's population).