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Objectives. To investigate how census tract (CT) estimates of mortality rates and inequities are affected by differential privacy (DP), whereby the public decennial census (DC) data are injected with statistical “noise” to protect individual privacy, and (2) uncertainty arising from the small number of different persons surveyed each year in a given CT for the American Community Survey (ACS).

Methods. We compared estimates of the 2008–2012 average annual premature mortality rate (death before age 65 years) in Massachusetts using CT data from the 2010 DC, 2010 DC with DP, and 2008–2012 ACS 5-year estimate data.

Results. For these 3 denominator sources, the age-standardized premature mortality rates (per 100 000) for the total population respectively equaled 166.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 162.2, 170.6), 166.4 (95% CI = 162.2, 170.6), and 166.3 (95% CI = 162.1, 170.5), and inequities in the …