Years Of Life Lost Calculator

Work out years of life lost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Years Of Life Lost Calculator

Multiplies deaths by the remaining life expectancy at the age of death, and also shows the figure discounted at 3 percent as used in burden of disease studies.

Formula

Years of life lost

YLL = deaths x (reference life expectancy at age of death - age at death); discounted YLL uses (1 - (1+r)^-L) / r

Worked example

With the default values below, Years Of Life Lost Calculator returns Years of life lost of 1,250.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Deathsaccepts 0–1,000,000: 50
Average age at deathaccepts 0–110 years: 55 years
Reference life expectancy at that ageaccepts 1–110 years: 80 years

Results

Years of life lost: 1,250.0 years
Years lost per death: 25.00 years
Years of life lost discounted at 3%: 870.7 years
Deaths counted: 50

Step by step

1Values used
2Years of life lost
3Years of life lost= 1,250.0 years
4Years lost per death= 25.00 years
5Years of life lost discounted at 3%= 870.7 years
6Deaths counted= 50

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why discount future years?

Global Burden of Disease studies historically discounted at 3% a year, though the 2010 revision dropped discounting and age weighting.

Which reference expectancy is used?

A normative standard life table rather than local life expectancy, so YLL is comparable between countries.