A new map based on official data reveals the shockingly low life expectancy of Americans.
People in the US can now expect to live to just over 76 years old, which is far worse than any other country in the G7, and even lower than countries like China and Colombia.
When we look at it by US state, the picture becomes even bleaker.
In Mississippi, the state with the lowest life expectancy, people live an average of only 70 years.
That is younger than the average person living in Syria (72 years), Iran (74 years) and Palestine (73.5 years), according to the University of Oxford. Our world in data dashboard.
The map above shows life expectancy by state in the US
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And this graph shows how average life expectancy from birth has shifted each year in the country
People living in West Virginia (age 71) and Alabama (age 72) also had lower life expectancies than people in the three Middle Eastern countries.
Rounding out the bottom five were Louisiana at 72.2 years and Kentucky at 72.3 years.
On the other hand, Hawaii was the state with the longest lifespan, with residents living to an average of almost 80 years.
Northern states that prioritize health, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, where people live to nearly 80 years of age, also rank in the top ten.
The CDC released the data today, estimating the life expectancy of babies born in 2021, the latest date available.
Nationally, the 2021 downturn was largely blamed on the COVID pandemic and rising fentanyl overdose deaths, a crisis unique to the US.
Some experts also point to a higher rate of gun crime than in other countries: 32 percent of Americans own a gun.
And higher rates of chronic diseases such as obesity, which increase the risk of a number of life-shortening conditions later in life, including heart disease and high blood pressure.
Experts blame expensive health care, people without insurance and a rise in chronic diseases for the country’s declining life expectancy (stocks)
Bradley Schurman, an expert on demography and author of The Super Age: Decoding our Demographic Destiny, told DailyMail.com that a “quite complex web of factors” has led to the life expectancy gap between the North and South.
‘There are probably more reasons than I can list, but in general the South has less social protection than the North, so it is harder to get access to health care, for example. There are also higher rates of obesity.
‘In addition, the distance that people have to travel for healthcare, for example, can be much greater.
“If one of us had a medical emergency right now, I can guarantee that for you and me, sitting in New York and Washington, it would take 20 minutes to get from the call to the hospital, maybe even less.
“But in some rural areas it can take more than two hours, a dramatic difference.”
He also said higher gun ownership rates in the South and depopulation, which has closed many rural hospitals, also played a role.
Official data shows that life expectancy fell in almost every state in 2020-2021, namely 39 out of 50.
Alaska recorded the sharpest decline, with life expectancy falling 2.1 percent, followed by West Virginia with a decline of 1.8 percent and New Mexico with a decline of 1.5 percent.
On the other end of the spectrum, New Jersey saw the fastest increase in life expectancy – at 1.5 percent – next to New York – with a 1.3 percent increase.
In 2021, about 460,000 people died from Covid in the US as the country battled new, more contagious variants, causing life expectancy to drop in many states.
But in 2022, thanks to the arrival of vaccines, this number dropped to 244,000 and in 2023 it was less than 100,000.
At the same time, US states are also being hit by a rise in deaths from opioid addiction.
There were 106,700 drug overdose deaths in 2021, up 10 percent from 92,000 the year before. The numbers have remained stable since then.
| Stands | Life expectancy at birth (years) | % change in a year |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii Massachusetts Connecticut New York New Jersey Minnesota New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont California Washington Utah Nebraska Wisconsin Colorado Iowa North Dakota Oregon Maryland Idaho Illinois Virginia Maine South Dakota Pennsylvania United States Delaware Florida Kansas Montana Michigan Texas District of Columbia Nevada Arizona Wyoming North Carolina Missouri Indiana Alaska Ohio Georgia South Carolina New Mexico Oklahoma Arkansas Tennessee Kentucky Louisiana Alabama West VirginiaMississippi |
79.9 79.6 79.2 79 79 78.8 78.5 78.5 78.4 78.3 78.2 78.2 77.8 77.8 77.7 77.7 77.6 77.4 77.2 77.2 77.1 76.8 76.7 76.6 76.4 76.4 76.3 76.1 76 75.8 75.7 75.4 75.3 75.1 75 75 74.9 74.6 74.6 74.5 74.5 74.3 73.5 73 72.7 72.5 72.4 72.3 72.2 72 7170.9 |
-0.8% +0.6% +0.8% +1.3% +1.5% -0.3% -0.5% +0.3% -0.4% -0.7% -1% -0.4% +0.1% +0.1% -0.6% +0.2% +0.7% -1.4% +0.4% -1.2% +0.3% -0.8% -1.1% -0.1% -0.4% -0.6% -0.4% -1.4% -0.4% -1% -0.3% -1.1% 0% -1.2% -1.3% -1.3% -1.2% -0.5% -0.4% -2.1% -0.8% -1.3% -1.3% -1.5% -1.4% -1.3% -1.4% -1.2% -0.9% -1.2% -1.8%-1% |