Study: Life expectancy up in all 88 Ohio counties

A new report shows that life expectancies have risen in all 88 of Ohio’s counties (Source: “Life expectancy rises in all 88 Ohio counties,” Columbus Dispatch, May 8, 2017).

Nationwide, life expectancies dropped in 13 counties from 1980 to 2014, according to the report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.

According to the University of Washington study that was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, life expectancy in Ohio in 2014 was 77.9 years. That compares with a U.S. life expectancy of 79.1. Geauga County, located in in northeast Ohio, leads the state with 81.6 years. The county with the lowest life expectancy was Jackson, in southern Ohio, with 74.6.

Of the 10 counties where life expectancy has dropped the most since 1980, eight are in Kentucky. The other two are in Oklahoma and Alabama.