Inequality in life expectancy grows among older Americans

Seniors in urban areas and on the coasts are surviving longer than their counterparts in rural areas and the nation’s interior, according to an analysis from Samuel Preston of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s leading demographers (Source: “The Startling Inequality Gap That Emerges After Age 65,” Kaiser Health News, March 12, 2020).

This troubling geographic gap in life expectancy for older Americans has been widening since 2000, according to new research, which highlights growing inequality in later life.

Notably, 65-year-olds in “rural areas have had much smaller improvements than those in large metro areas,” said Preston. “And people living in ‘interior’ regions ― particularly Appalachia and the East South Central region [Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee] — have done worse than those on the coasts.”