U.S. Life Expectancy Varies By More Than 20 Years From County To County
In 2014, life expectancy at birth for both sexes combined was 79.1 years, but differed by about 20 years between counties with the lowest and highest life expectancy. Much of the variation is due to poverty, race/ethnicity factors, behavioral risk factors, metabolic risk factors, and health care factors. Between 1980 and 2014, the geographic inequality in life expectancy increased.
These findings were reported in “Inequalities in Life Expectancy Among US Counties, 1980 to 2014; Temporal Trends and Key Drivers” by Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, MPH; Amelia Bertozzi-Villa, MPH; Rebecca W. Stubbs, BA; et al. The researchers analyzed deidentified . . .
