What state has the longest life expectancy?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
Life expectancy — also called life expectancy at birth — is a projection of what the average age of death will be for people born today. The estimate is based on age-specific death rates reported in the year of birth. According to the data from the map above, what state has the highest life expectancy at birth in the U.S.?
As of 2023, life expectancy across the United States is 78.4 years, according to final death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What state has the lowest life expectancy at birth in the U.S.?
According to the visual from the map above, what is the life expectancy in your state and how does that compare to other nearby states?
Based on the map above, describe one pattern you see regarding regional variance of life expectancy in the United States.
Mississippi has the lowest life expectancy across all states at 70.9 years, a decrease of one year since 2020. Notably, most states with lower life expectancies were in the South, whereas states with higher life expectancies were mostly in the West and the Northeast. Lower life expectancy is also more prevalent among non-Hispanic Black Americans, low-income populations, and people with low levels of educational attainment, according to the NCHS.What do you suspect are two reasons for that regional variation?
Across the lifespan, and across every demographic group, Americans die at younger ages than their counterparts in other wealthy nations. American life expectancy (78.4) is lower than that of Cuba, Lebanon, and Czechia. Researchers call this the "U.S. health disadvantage" – the fact that living in America is worse for your health and makes you more likely to die younger than if you lived in another rich country like the U.K., Switzerland or Japan (84.8 years life expectancy). At the same time, Americans spend way more on healthcare than citizens of other wealth nations - In 2022, the U.S. spent an estimated $12,742 per person on healthcare, nearly double the average of comparable countries. Do you think most Americans know that our health outcomes are so much worse than peer (similar) nations?
"Shorter Lives, Poorer Health." was a landmark report produced by the National Academy of Sciences and funded by the National Institutes of Health. The report compared U.S. health and death with other developed countries. The results showed – convincingly – that the U.S. was stalling on health advances in the population while other countries raced ahead. A big part of the difference between life and death in the U.S. and its peer countries is people dying or being killed before age 50; specifically because of factors like teen pregnancy, drug overdoses, HIV, fatal car crashes, injuries, and violence. According to the report, - two years difference in life expectancy probably comes from the fact that firearms are so available in the United States. Other factors in low American life expectancy include: the opioid epidemic, the fact that we are more likely to drive more miles, have more cars, and ultimately, more fatal crashes. What do you think is the most important reason that Americans live shorter lives than people in other wealthy countries?
How is the data illustrated in the visual above impact your own life?
Five core American political values include: individualism, equality of opportunity, free enterprise, rule of law, and limited government. How do you think these political values help explain short American life expectancy relative to other wealthy countries.
The "Shorter Lives" report is filled with recommended next steps for the government, especially the NIH, which has a budget of more than $40 billion annually to conduct research to improve Americans' health. The NIH should undertake a "thorough examination of the policies and approaches that countries with better health outcomes have found useful and that may have application, with adaptations, in the United States," the authors wrote. In other words: let's figure out what they are doing that works in other places, and do it over here. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, more than 1,200 jobs at the NIH and billions of dollars in funding have been slashed. How do you think the Trump administration’s policies will impact life expectancy in the U.S.?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Contact your president and explain what you think he should do about American life expectancy or leave your comments for him in the comments section below.
Get Creative
If you gave America a yelp review for life expectancy how many stars would you give it and what comments would you write.
Learn More
Check out more great visual data about life expectancy at Our World in Data.