![]() ![]() These geographical disparities aren’t artifacts of pure geography or demographics they’re the consequences of policy decisions at the state level. Hawaii ranks first at 80.7, followed by Washington, Minnesota, California, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, all with average life expectancies of 79 or higher. The highest life expectancies were generally in states on the West Coast, the northern Midwest and the Northeast. (The lone state from outside the region in the bottom 10 was New Mexico.) The lowest average life expectancies are seen in the states of the Southeast, according to 2020 figures from the CDC: South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi all had average life expectancies from birth of less than 75 years. The former is entirely within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation the latter is a hive of affluent, physically active inhabitants within the state’s ski resort belt. “America is seeing the greatest gap in life expectancy across regions in the last 40 years,” Ney says.Īccording to 2020 death records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the longevity gulf is now 20 years wide - ranging from an average life expectancy from birth of 66.8 years in Oglala Lakota County, S.D., to 86.8 years in Summit County, Colo. What’s striking about recent figures compiled by Ney are the geographic disparities in longevity. “Income is tied in with a lot of other things, like your ability to afford healthcare, your housing security, your distance from a toxic chemical site, things like that.” ![]() “There’s a really strong relationship between life expectancy and income,” Ney told me. The most important governing factor is economics, observes Jeremy Ney, an expert in graphically displaying social and economic disparities. There’s little evidence of that happening. The magnitude and diversity of the problem should prompt Americans to engage in serious soul-searching. “Additionally, groups with lower life expectancy tend to have higher-risk jobs that can’t be performed virtually, live in more crowded settings, and have less access to vaccination, which increases the risk of becoming sick with or dying of COVID-19.” Shmerling of Harvard Medical School wrote in October. They’re connected to what the CDC called “the social determinants of health” - “economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, racism, climate change and political systems.”Īmericans with the shortest life expectancies “tend to have the most poverty, face the most food insecurity, and have less or no access to healthcare,” Robert H. Those factors haven’t occurred in a vacuum. The Wall Street Journal says America ‘soaks the affluent.’ Try to hold back your tears. ![]() Business Column: Wall Street Journal tells us to weep for the plight of the very, very rich ![]()
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