Age-adjusted death rates are weighted averages of the age-specific death rates, where the weights represent a fixed population by age. They are used to compare relative mortality risk among groups and over time. An age-adjusted rate represents the rate that would have existed had the age-specific rates of the particular year prevailed in a population whose age distribution was the same as that of the fixed population. Age-adjusted rates should be viewed as relative indexes rather than as direct or actual measures of mortality risk. However, you can select other standard populations, or select specific population criteria to determine the age distribution ratios. Premature death rate includes all deaths where the deceased is younger than 75 years of age. 75 years of age is the standard consideration of a premature death according to the CDC's definition of Years of Potential Life Loss. Starting with the 2019 vintage, the CDC no longer calculates rates for a county when the death count is less than 20, marking them as "unreliable." FRED records these instances as missing observations in the series. For more information see the Frequently Asked Questions about Death Rates (https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/cmf.html#Frequently%20Asked%20Questions%20about%20Death%20Rates).

The homeownership rate is computed by dividing the estimated total population in owner-occupied units by the estimated total population (ACS 5-year variables B25008_002E and B25008_001E from table B25008, respectively). A housing unit is owner-occupied if the owner or co-owner lives in the unit, even if it is mortgaged or not fully paid for. A housing unit is classified as occupied if it is the current place of residence of the person or group of people living in it at the time of interview, or if the occupants are only temporarily absent from the residence for two months or less (e.g., on vacation or a business trip). If all the people staying in the unit at the time of the interview are staying there for two months or less, the unit is considered to be temporarily occupied and classified as "vacant." Multiyear estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) are "period" estimates derived from a data sample collected over a period of time, as opposed to "point-in-time" estimates such as those from past decennial censuses. ACS 5-year estimate includes data collected over a 60-month period. The date of the data is the end of the 5-year period. For example, a value dated 2014 represents data from 2010 to 2014. However, they do not describe any specific day, month, or year within that time period. Multiyear estimates require some considerations that single-year estimates do not. For example, multiyear estimates released in consecutive years consist mostly of overlapping years and shared data. The 2010-2014 ACS 5-year estimates share sample data from 2011 through 2014 with the 2011-2015 ACS 5-year estimates. Because of this overlap, users should use extreme caution in making comparisons with consecutive years of multiyear estimates. Please see "Section 3: Understanding and Using ACS Single-Year and Multiyear Estimates" on publication page 13 (file page 19) of the 2018 ACS General Handbook (https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/acs/acs_general_handbook_2018.pdf) for a more thorough clarification.

These data come from the Current Population Survey (CPS), also known as the household survey. Civilian Labor Force includes all persons in the civilian noninstitutional population ages 16 and older classified as either employed or unemployed. Employed persons are all persons who, during the reference week (the week including the 12th day of the month), (a) did any work as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of their family, or (b) were not working but who had jobs from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job. Unemployed persons are all persons who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment some time during the 4 week-period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed. The unemployment rate is the unemployed percent of the civilian labor force [100 times (unemployed/civilian labor force)]. For more details, see the release's <a href=https://www.bls.gov/lau/laufaq.htm>frequently asked questions</a>.

The crude death rate is the number of deaths reported each calendar year divided by the population, multiplied by 100,000. Premature death rate includes all deaths where the deceased is younger than 75 years of age. 75 years of age is the standard consideration of a premature death according to the CDC's definition of Years of Potential Life Loss. Starting with the 2019 vintage, the CDC no longer calculates rates for a county when the death count is less than 20, marking them as "unreliable." FRED records these instances as missing observations in the series. For more information see the Frequently Asked Questions about Death Rates (https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/cmf.html#Frequently%20Asked%20Questions%20about%20Death%20Rates).

The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare calculates preventable hospital admissions by considering the discharges for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions from short-stay acute care hospitals per 1,000 medicare enrollees. This is measured as a 5-year average and is adjusted for age, sex, and race. For more information, see Regional and Racial Variation in Primary Care and the Quality of Care among Medicare Beneficiaries (2010) (https://www.dartmouthatlas.org/downloads/reports/Primary_care_report_090910.pdf).