Mortality Rates in Erie County

Mortality Rates

Analysis Categories

What does this measure?

Underlying cause of death by Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases, Drug-Induced, Heart Disease, and Suicide by race/ethnicity, age range, or sex. Banded in 3 year increments since 2000.

Why is this important?

Death rates are a measure of the overall health of a community, particularly since some of the most common causes of death, such as heart disease, can be prevented or mitigated through lifestyle changes, prevention efforts, early intervention, and better access to quality health care.

How is Erie County doing?

Cancer

Cancer deaths have remained steady since 2000, and age distribution finds that beginning at age 60 that Cancer as cause of death is more than twice as high as the preceding age groups. 

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease deaths have fallen in Erie County since 2012, but remain highest in the age ranges for 80+ year-olds, at nearly 3 times higher rates.

Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease

Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease deaths have fallen on average since 2012. Racially, the pattern deviates from average of all causes of death, with White Erie County residents representing 95.2% of chronic lower respiratory deaths, a +2.4% increase. Conversely, the Black population represents only 3.6% of chronic lower respiratory disease deaths, a -1.6% decrease from the average of all causes.

Drug-Induced

Drug–induced Deaths are double what they were at in 2010-to-2012 (1,028) to 2016-to-2018 (2,188) and skew more towards the male population at (68.2%). Age ranges for drug induced deaths begin to spike at ages 20 to 29, but remain highest for ages 30 to 39. By race, the Black population sees a higher percentage of drug-induced deaths than on average at 7.6% of all drug-induced deaths, up from 6.3% during the 2014-to-2016 data years.

Heart Disease

Heart Disease deaths have fallen every 3-year period since 2010, and rise with. 80 + year-olds account for over half of all heart disease deaths.

Suicide

Suicide and Intentional Self-harm Deaths are also up to 1,228 from 884 in 2010-to-2012, and skew highly male, at 75.2% and highest between the ages of 50 to 59 years old.

EVS Indicators

EVS analyzes the data in each topic category using indicators, which report a targeted and digestible number, rate, or amount to represent Erie County as a whole. While this does not cover every aspect of the topic, it assists in establishing Erie's performance relative to the prior year(s). The indicators for the Health: Mortality topic are:

This indicator measures the number of deaths per year, expressed as an age-adjusted rate per 100,000 residents. The trend for Mortality Rate was up and worse for the latest 2016 to 2018 period with a reported increase of +2.9 deaths per 100,000 residents within the County. There were 807 deaths per 100,000 residents within the County in the year set 2014 to 2016.

This indicator measures the number of deaths per year due to cancer, expressed as an age-adjusted rate per 100,000 residents. The trend for Cancer Mortality was down and better for the latest 2016 to 2018 period with a reported decrease of -7.6 deaths per 100,000 residents within the County. There were 176.6 cancer deaths per 100,000 residents within the County in the year set 2014 to 2016.

This indicator measures the number of deaths per year due to heart disease, expressed as an age-adjusted rate per 100,000 residents. The trend for Heart Disease Mortality was down and better for the latest 2016 to 2018 period with a reported decrease of -13.9 deaths per 100,000 residents within the County. There were 174.5 heart disease deaths per 100,000 residents within the County in the year set 2014 to 2016.

How does Erie compare to its Peers?


About this Data

Data from the PA Department of Health as of 02/2023.