– Top 5 U.S. Counties with Longest Life Expectancy in 2014:
– Summit County, Colorado: 86.83 years
– Pitkin County, Colorado: 86.52 years
– Eagle County, Colorado: 85.94 years
– Billings County, North Dakota: 84.04 years
– Marin County, California: 83.80 years
– Factors Affecting Life Expectancy in U.S. Counties:
– Income disparity impacts life expectancy.
– Counties with longer life expectancy are often sparsely populated or affluent suburbs.
– Racial composition plays a role, with non-Hispanic whites being predominant.
– Asian Americans are the largest racial group in a few counties.
– Life expectancy varies significantly across different U.S. counties.
– Geographic Distribution of Counties with Longest Life Expectancy:
– 21 states host counties with the longest life expectancy.
– Colorado has the highest number of counties on the list.
– California, Iowa, and Nebraska also have multiple counties.
– The Rocky Mountains in Colorado have three adjacent counties with the longest life expectancy.
– Disparities exist between the counties with the longest and shortest life expectancies.
– Comparison of Life Expectancy in 2014 and 1980:
– Life expectancy has increased in most counties since 1980.
– Summit County, Colorado, had the highest life expectancy in 2014.
– Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, had the lowest life expectancy in 2014.
– The gap between counties with longest and shortest life expectancies is widening.
– Income disparity significantly impacts life expectancy differences.
– Additional Lists Related to Life Expectancy:
– U.S. states and territories ranked by life expectancy.
– U.S. counties with the shortest life expectancy.
– Changes in life expectancy across U.S. states from 1985 to 2010.
– Life expectancy data for U.S. congressional districts.
– Comparison of life expectancy across North American countries.
This list of U.S. counties with longest life expectancy includes 51 counties (and county equivalents) out of a grand total of 3,142 counties or county equivalents in the United States. Most of the counties where people live longest are either sparsely populated or well-to-do suburbs of large cities. Forty-seven of the counties listed have a population of which the largest racial component is non-Hispanic whites. Two have populations of which Hispanics are the majority. Asian Americans make up the largest component of two counties.
Counties with the longest life expectancy are located in 21 states: Colorado (11); California and Iowa (5); Nebraska (4); North Dakota, Virginia, and Minnesota (3); Alaska, New York, and New Jersey (2), and Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Florida, Michigan, South Dakota, Idaho, Maryland, Utah, Wisconsin, and Oregon (one each).
The residents of three adjacent counties in the high-elevation Rocky Mountains of Colorado enjoy the longest life expectancy.
Among all the counties in the US, there is a wide range in life expectancy from birth. The residents of Summit County, Colorado, live the longest with a life expectancy of 86.83 years. The residents of Oglala Lakota County (formerly Shannon County) of South Dakota live the shortest with a life expectancy of 66.81 years—twenty years less. Moreover, the gap between the counties with the longest life expectancy and the shortest is widening. The life expectancy of the United States as a whole increased by more than 5 years between 1980 and 2014. The life expectancy of most of the longest-lived counties equaled or exceeded that increase. The life expectancy of most of the shortest-lived counties increased less than 5 years—and in a few counties, especially in Kentucky, life expectancy decreased.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2016 concluded that income was a major component of the difference in life expectancy in states, counties, races, and regions of the U.S.. Men in the richest one percent of the population lived 15 years longer than men in the poorest one percent of the population and women in the richest one percent of the population lived 10 years longer.