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Posted
January 24, 2025

U.S. life expectancy disparities nearly double since 2000

Americans’ health has long been unequal, but a new study shows that the disparity between the life expectancies of different populations has nearly doubled since 2000 (Source: “The Growing Inequality in Life Expectancy Among Americans,” Kaiser Health News, Jan. 22).
 
“This is like comparing very different countries,” said Tom Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations and an author of the study.
 
The life expectancy among Native Americans in the western United States has dropped below 64 years, close to life expectancies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti. For many Asian Americans, it’s around 84 years — on par with life expectancies in Japan and Switzerland.
 
Called “Ten Americas,” the analysis published late last year in The Lancet found that “one’s life expectancy varies dramatically depending on where one lives, the economic conditions in that location, and one’s racial and ethnic identity.” The worsening health of specific populations is a key reason the country’s overall life expectancy — at 75 years for men and 80 for women — is the shortest among wealthy nations.

Heart disease, car fatalities, diabetes, COVID-19, and other common causes of death are directly to blame. But research shows that the conditions of people’s lives, their behaviors, and their environments heavily influence why some populations are at higher risk than others.
 
Last year HPIO released a publication titled What’s Driving the Trend on Early Death that uses data from the 2024 Health Value Dashboard to explore the experiences and environments that lead to deaths among working-age Ohioans (ages 15-64) and provides a set of policies to drive improvement.