A new map based on official data lays bare Americans’ shockingly low life expectancy.
People in the US can now expect to live to a little over 76, which is far worse than any country in the G7 — and lower than nations such as China, Estonia and Colombia.
When broken down by US states, the picture becomes even grimmer.
People in Mississippi, which has the lowest life expectancy, live to just 70.9 years old on average.
That’s younger than the average person living in Syria (72 years), Iran (74 years) and Palestine (73.5 years) — according to Oxford University‘s Our World in Data dashboard.
The above map shows the life expectancy by state in the US
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And this graph shows how average life expectancy from birth has shifted by year in the nation. Life expectancy by state for 2022 is not yet available because data for states takes longer to analyze and process
People living in West Virginia (71 years) and Alabama (72 years) also had a lower life expectancy than the war-torn Middle East.
Rounding out the bottom five US states for life expectancy are Louisiana — 72.2 years — and Kentucky — 72.3 years.
On the other hand, the best ranked state is Hawaii — where residents can expect to enjoy nearly 80 years of life on average.
Health-conscious northern states like Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York where people live to nearly 80 years old also make the top ten.
The data was released by the CDC today, and estimated the life expectancy for babies born in the year 2021 — the latest date available.
Nationwide, the downturn in 2021 was largely blamed on the Covid pandemic and the surge in fentanyl overdose deaths, a crisis unique to the US.
Some experts have also blamed a higher rate of gun crime and suicides.
And higher rates of chronic diseases like obesity, that raise the risk of a myriad of life-shortening conditions in later life — including heart disease and high blood pressure.
Though the US is recovering from a surge in Covid deaths, the country still ranks far below other developed nations. Even taking into account the recent increase in life expectancy, nations like Japan, France, and Sweden rank far higher
Experts blame expensive healthcare, people without insurance and a surge in chronic diseases for the nation’s faltering life expectancy figures (stock)
Bradley Schurman, an expert on demographics who wrote The Super Age: Decoding our Demographic Destiny, told DailyMail.com that a ‘pretty complex web of factors’ had led to the longevity gap between the North and the South.
‘There are probably more reasons than I could list, but generally the South has fewer social protections than the North, so it’s harder to access healthcare for example. There are higher rates of obesity too.
‘Also, the distance people have to travel for healthcare can be much further for example.
‘For you and me, sitting in New York and D.C., if one of us had a medical emergency right now I could guarantee that it would take 20 minutes to get from the call to the hospital drop off, maybe less.
‘But in some rural areas, it could take more than two hours — a dramatic difference.’
He also said that higher rates of gun ownership in the South and depopulation, which has led to many rural hospitals closing, were also factors.
Between 2020 and 2021, official data showed nearly every state recorded a drop in its life expectancy — or 39 out of 50.
Alaska recorded the sharpest downturn, with life expectancy dropping by 2.1 percent, alongside West Virginia — down 1.8 percent — and New Mexico — down 1.5 percent.
At the other end of the scale, New Jersey saw the fastest surge in life expectancy — up 1.5 percent — alongside New York — up 1.3 percent.
About 460,000 people died from Covid in the US in 2021 as the nation was gripped by new more transmissible variants, driving life expectancy down in many states.
But in 2022, amid the arrival of vaccines, this fell to 244,000 and in 2023 it was less than 100,000.
At the same time, US states have also been hit by a surge in deaths from opioid addiction.
There were 106,700 deaths from drug overdoses in 2021, up 10 percent from 92,000 the year before. The figures have remained steady since.
| State | 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 TennesseeKentuckyLouisianaAlabama 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 72.472.372.2727170.9 |
-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% |
