A new study drawing on a massive trove of data confirms long-held notions that when it comes to life expectancy, income matters: The richest American men live 15 years longer than the poorest men and the richest American women live 10 years longer than the poorest women.
But the study also comes up with some striking findings. The poor in some areas live nearly as long as their wealthier neighbors while the longevity gap is widening in other areas. In other words, geography matters — at least for the poor. That suggests that public health interventions — even modest ones — may make a big difference.
Drawing on the data, The New York Times put together an interactive display that allows you to click on any county in the U.S. and see how it compares with others.
Click on Jackson County, Missouri, for example, and you’ll learn that the life expectancy for a poor 40-year-old resident – one with annual household income below $28,000 – is 78.2 years, or eight years fewer than a resident with more than $100,000 in annual household income.
Click on Wyandotte County, Kansas, and you’ll discover that life expectancy for a poor 40-year-old is 77.5 years, which ranks among the worst life expectancies for the poor in the United States. And click on Johnson County, Kansas, and you’ll learn that life expectancy for the poor is about 80 years, matching the average for the poor nationwide.
As the study says, the richest Americans have gained about three years in longevity since 2000 while the poorest Americans have experienced no gains overall. Not surprisingly, some of the variation has to do with lifestyle choices like smoking and exercise.
But somewhat surprisingly, the report finds that the differences have less to do with access to health care or levels of income inequality and more to do with whether the poor live in affluent areas with highly educated populations and high levels of government expenditures.
“Our findings show that inequality in life expectancy is not inevitable,” the report, which was published Monday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, states. “There are cities throughout America — from New York to San Francisco to Birmingham, Alabama — where gaps in life expectancy are relatively small or are narrowing over time.
“Replicating these successes more broadly will require targeted local efforts to improve health behaviors among low-income people in local communities. The local data on life expectancy by income group constructed in this project offer a lens to monitor local progress and identify promising solutions to reduce disparities in health.”
The New York Times gives a more detailed look at the data and its implications here.
Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
