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Rich/Poor lifespan gap "Rapidly increasing" - Report + Links

320 views · Published 11 April 2016 · 3:36 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Civil Disturbia · 2016 · Science & Technology

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Gap in lifespan between Rich & Poor rapidly Increasing - Full report and links.

LINKS -
The Health Inequality Project - https://healthinequality.org/
Interactive map of lifespan and the poor in the US - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20...

FACT LIST - 

The gaps between the rich and the poor are growing rapidly over time. The richest Americans have gained approximately 3 years in longevity since 2000, but the poorest Americans have experienced no gains.

For comparison, the CDC estimates that eliminating cancer as a cause of death will increase average lifespans by 3.2 years.

The richest American men live 15 years longer than the poorest men, while the richest American women live 10 years longer than the poorest women. 

Life expectancy varies substantially across cities, especially for low-income people. For the poorest Americans, life expectancies are 6 years higher in New York than in Detroit. For the richest Americans, the difference is less than 1 year. 

On average, the life expectancy for a poor 40-year-old in the Casper area is 77.3 years. It is one of the worst places in the U.S. for life expectancy for the poor.

There is also a gap between the rich — those in households making more than $100,000 per year — and poor: In the Casper area, the poor will die about 9 years before the rich. That’s roughly equivalent to the difference in life expectancy between an average man in the United States and one in Somalia. It is about 2 years more than the gap for the United States as a whole.

For low-income people, life expectancy is highest in California, New York, and Vermont. It is lowest in Nevada. The next 8 states with the lowest life expectancies form a belt connecting Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. 

Much of the variation in life expectancy across areas is explained by differences in health behaviours, such as smoking and exercise. Differences in life expectancy among the poor are not strongly associated with differences in access to health care or levels of income inequality. Instead, the poor live longest in affluent cities with highly educated populations and high levels of local government expenditures, such as New York and San Francisco. 

Changes in life expectancy also differ sharply across areas. In Birmingham, AL the poor gained 3.7 years in life expectancy during the 2000 — about the same as the average increase in life expectancy for the richest Americans. In Tampa, FL the poor lost 2.2 years of life expectancy over the same period. 

Our findings show that inequality in life expectancy is not inevitable. There are cities throughout America — from New York to San Francisco to Birmingham, AL — where gaps in life expectancy are relatively small or are narrowing over time.

Replicating these successes more broadly will likely require targeted local efforts to improve health behaviours among low-income people in local communities. The local data on life expectancy by income group constructed in this project offer a lens to monitor local progress and identify promising solutions to reduce disparities in health.

Tags
#TheHealthInequalityProject 
#InteractivemapLifespanRich&poorUSA

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