Where You Live Can Affect Your Life Expectancy More Than You Think

If you knew where you lived could shorten your life expectancy, would you move? The idea of finding out how long our lives will be is a source of fascination, even leading to an AI-based app that possibly predicts when you'll die. For researchers at the Yale School of Public Health, the idea that which state you live in within the United States could impact your life expectancy was an intriguing idea. They analyzed 179 million deaths for people born between 1900 and 2000 to see what has changed.

Overall, life expectancy has gone up nationwide. From 1900, men's life expectancy rose almost 28 years, and women's rose around 20 years. Researchers expected this based on overall improvements in health care and medical understanding. Some findings, however, surprised them.

One of the study's co-authors, Ted Holford, said to CBS, "For some of those states in the Northeast and the West, there's been quite a lot of change, which one would expect, given all of the changes in medical practices and health care over the 20th century. But what was surprising to me is how little it changed, especially for women, in some of those southern states. Some of them basically didn't change at all."

If you took a cheek swab to predict how long you have left to live, and resided in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and some other southern states, you would not be happy. For both men and women, there is an overlap in the states that had the worst improvements in life expectancy.

For women in West Virginia, life expectancy only increased one year from 74.3 years of life to 75.3. Kentucky only rose from 74.9 years to 76.5. The situation is even worse for Mississippi and Arkansas. When researchers compared cohorts for 1995 and 2020, they found that life expectancy actually decreased. Mississippi decreased from 76 to 75.6, and Arkansas decreased from 77.2 to 76.6.

The worst states for men were about the same, with Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee having the lowest levels of increase. The life expectancy for men in 1900 averaged between 61.5 and 63.7 for those southern states. In 2000, it had only gone up to an average of between 71.8 and 73.4.

Men and women had a similar overlap in states that had the best increases in life expectancy. Washington D.C., New York, California, and Massachusetts were all top states for longer lives. For women in New York, life expectancy rose from 71.2 years in 1900 to 91.9 in 2000. For men, it rose from 60.1 to 87.8. For women in California, life expectancy rose from 73.6 years in 1900 to 91.3 in 2000. For men, it rose from 62.7 to 86.8.

Why have these states seen such a positive change? Do they drink alcohol more moderately or meditate more? The study's authors had some data-backed conclusions. "These are undoubtedly shaped by state-level policies," the study said. "States with progressive public health policies were more likely to experience increases in life expectancy than states without such policies."

The study points to factors like earlier anti-tobacco programs, vaccination advocacy, and more robust health care systems at the state level that have resulted in these differences in life expectancy. The overall socioeconomic status of communities also plays a significant role. If you are wondering how long you have left to live, take a look at your state's innovations and funding for public health across the last century. According to the study, these changes have a huge impact today on how long your life will be.