Background: When evaluating the health status of a population, an increasingly important role is played by measures aiming to access premature mortality in lost lifetime units. There is a considerable number of life years ‘to be recovered’ provided cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is reduced, as CVD cause the highest absolute number of years lost.

Aim: To access life years lost by the inhabitants of the Lodz region due to CVD and to determine the rank of each disorder within this ICD-10 class, which causes most life years lost, as well as to identify trends in this regard.

Methods: Our research was based on a dataset consisting of 313,144 death certificates, including 146,852 due to CVD, of the inhabitants of the Lodz region from 1999 to 2008. We applied the standard expected years of life lost (SEYLL) indicators per living person (SEYLLp) and per death (SEYLLd) to calculate life years lost. Joinpoint models were used to analyse changes in time. We also estimated average annual percentage changes in the SEYLL indicators.

Results: In 2008, the number of life years lost amounted to 754 per 10,000 males and 595 per 10,000 females. The most important contribution to life years lost among males was from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (SEYLL_p = 200), particularly acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (SEYLL_p = 128). Nearly the same number of years lost was due to other heart disease (SEYLL_p = 199), especially heart failure (SEYLL_p = 121). Cerebrovascular disease caused 191 life years lost per 10,000 males, while diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries caused the loss of 98 life years per 10,000 males. In women, the highest number of life years lost was attributed to cerebrovascular disease (SEYLL_p = 176) and other heart disease (SEYLL_p = 152), especially heart failure (SEYLL_p = 95). IHD contributed to the loss of 113 life years per 10,000 females (including AMI: SEYLLp = 62), while diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries led to 112 life years lost per 10,000 females.

Conclusions: The highest number of life years lost resulted from IHD among males and cerebrovascular disease among females. A growing trend in the number of life years lost due to CVD was noted since 2002 for males and since 2003 for females. These unfavourable trends decelerated considerably after 2006. The highest decrease in life years lost for both sexes in 1999–2008 was noted for IHD.