Here's where you're most likely to live longest across the US
Shutterstock
A child born in 2014 in Oglala Lakota County in South Dakota, home to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, has a life expectancy of almost 67, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
But a child born that year in Santa Clara, California, could expect to live to 83. And in Summit County, Colorado, home to ski resorts like Breckenridge, a child born in 2014 has a life expectancy of 86.83 years - 20.1 years longer than the kid born in South Dakota.
Life expectancy rose in the US between 1980 and 2014, according to a study analyzing this IHME data, which was published May 8 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. But there's a large and growing disparity in the country: Inequality in life expectancy increased over that same period of time.
In 1980, counties around the US had much closer life expectancies. Along the coasts and in central Colorado and Alaska, there was a huge increase in life expectancy over the past 35 years. In southern counties and in states like the Dakotas, however, there was little improvement (if any) over the same period of time - and decreases in some places - according to the study.
Here's what the map of life expectancies for children born in 2014 looks like:
The data reveals that life expectancy is notably low in South Dakota, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Mississippi. California, New York, and Colorado have some of the highest expectancies.
The map below shows how much these life expectancy numbers changed between 1980 and 2014, with red signifying a decrease and blue showing an increase:
A large amount of the variation here is explained by socioeconomic factors, as well as race and ethnicity, behaviors like smoking and healthy eating, and access to quality health care, according to the researchers behind the study.
"With every passing year, inequality - however you measure it - has been widening over the last 34 years," Christopher Murray, head of IHME, who helped with the analysis, told NPR. "And so next year, we can reliably expect it'll be even more than 20 ... That is probably the most alarming part of the analysis."
You can examine an interactive version of these map on the IHME website.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- RBI announces auction sale of Govt. securities of ₹32,000 crore
- Catan adds climate change to the latest edition of the world-famous board game
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- JNK India IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more