BCPB Home > Benchmarks > Rankings > Performance Indicator 21: Potential Years Lost

Performance Indicator 21: Potential Years Lost

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

 (Updated May 21, 2008)
Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Rank

2

2

2

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

Performance Indicator Twenty-One is an indicator of premature mortality where lower values mean better performance.

British Columbia ranked second in terms of Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) in 2006, behind Quebec and ahead of Ontario.

Every province except Prince Edward Island noted a decline in their PYLL rate between 1997 and 2006. British Columbia had the second-largest decrease, behind Quebec but ahead of Ontario and Alberta. The nation as a whole saw a 16.2 percent decline in potential years of life lost per 1,000 population over the 1997 to 2006 period.

This indicator gives greater weight to deaths that occur at younger ages than to those at older ages, and can vary according to gender, socio-economic status, and geographic region. For the purposes of the PYLL calculation, premature death is defined to be any death between the ages of zero and 74 and is the sum of the differences between the actual age at death and age 75.

Why It's Important
Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) represents the number of years lost when a person dies prematurely.

>> Other Environment, Health and Society targets and indicators