When it comes to life expectancy, there are 10 Americas
By Ross Pomeroy | Published: 2024-12-04 15:30:00 | Source: Health – Big Think
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The United States is a big country. Its size, slightly smaller than Europe, leaves plenty of room for cultural differences. Cuisine, religious belief, and language change in different parts of the United States. But despite their differences, Americans tend to unite around a single flag, a common identity, and a cherished spirit of freedom and opportunity. Although there are many United States, there is only one America. But this ideal dissipates when looking at life expectancy.
As revealed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington (UW) in an article analysis Published in November The scalpel:
“A person’s life expectancy varies widely depending on where they live, the economic conditions in that location, and their racial and ethnic identity.”
When it comes to how long Americans can expect to live, the authors reach a stark conclusion: We don’t live in one America, but in ten different Americas.
The Ten Americas
Most researchers hail from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluationa leading public health research institution headquartered at the University of Wisconsin. They studied several large datasets covering deaths between 2000 and 2021, and paired this information with detailed demographic data. Through this comprehensive analysis, they divided the country into ten Americas based on how long Americans are expected to live at birth.
- America 1 It includes approximately 21 million Asians and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders (NHPI) living in counties whose NHPI population was less than 30% of the total Asian and Native Pacific Islander population in 2020. In 2021, they are expected to live 84 years at birth, compared to 83.1 years in 2000.
- America 2 It consists of Latinos living outside of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Its population is about 46 million people. In 2021, life expectancy for these Latinos is 79.4 years, down slightly from 80.4 in 2000.
- America 3 It is essentially an umbrella group and includes a majority of white people as well as a segment of Asians and American Indians who live in predominantly white counties. The average life expectancy for this group was 77.2 years in 2021, essentially unchanged from 77.5 years in 2000.
- America 4 It consists of low-income white residents in nonmetropolitan counties in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. These approximately 300,000 Americans can expect to live 76.7 years at birth in 2021, down from 77.6 years in 2000.
- America 5 It includes 16.5 million Latinos living in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. In 2021, their average life expectancy is 76 years, a significant decline from 77.8 years in 2000.
- America 6 It is populated by black Americans living outside large, segregated urban areas rather than in the rural areas of the Deep South. They number about 32 million people, and they can expect to live 72.3 years in 2021, compared to 72 years in 2000.
- America 7 It represents black Americans living in large, highly segregated urban areas. Its population is just over 10 million people. The average life expectancy of people living here is 71.5 years in 2021, up from 70.6 years in 2000.
- America 8 It consists of whites living in poor areas of Appalachia and the lower Mississippi Valley. Its population of 10.3 million can expect to live 71.1 years in 2021, down sharply from 74.8 years in 2000.
- America 9 It includes 2.1 million black Americans who live outside major cities in low-income counties in the Lower Mississippi Valley or the Far South. Their average life expectancy was 68 years in 2021, compared to 70.5 years in 2000.
- America 10 Represents American Indians and Alaska Natives who inhabit the Midwest or western states not contiguous with the Pacific Ocean. Life expectancy for these 1.3 million people was shockingly low, at 63.6 years in 2021, down from 72.3 years in 200.
Tales of longevity inequality
Several narratives emerge when examining these ten Americas within the United States. First and foremost, there is a 20.4-year gap in life expectancy between the Asians and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders who make up America 1 and the American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in America 10. This gap between the longest-lived and shortest-lived Americas was 12.6 years just two decades ago.
“This gap was large at the beginning of the century, grew wider over the first two decades, and was greatly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors commented.
Americans who live the shortest tend to live in low-income and rural counties with less access to health care. They are succumbing in greater numbers to obesity and opioid addiction. This stagnated life expectancy gains in the 2000s, and made these Americans uniquely vulnerable to death from COVID-19 in the early 2010s.
Second, there is a serious health crisis in America 10. American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in mostly Western states have seen a continuing decline in life expectancy throughout the century, even before the pandemic. Their average life expectancy is 63.6 years in 2021 similar To the citizens of Mozambique, whose country is currently going through a state of… civil war. The researchers cited some statistics that could explain this tragic trend. For starters, nearly one in five of these individuals have health insurance, compared to approx 92% Of Americans in general. Moreover, they suffer from high rates of unemployment and low rates of educational attainment, fueled by hundreds of years of systemic discrimination. This lack of opportunity leads to excessive alcohol consumption, tobacco use, injuries, and poor nutritional habits.
Third, black Americans generally do not live among the five longest-lived Americas. They made strong gains in life expectancy in the 2000s, significantly narrowing the gap with white Americans, the researchers noted. Improvements in education, decreased deaths from HIV/AIDS, and lower homicide rates contributed to this. But these gains evaporated in the latter half of the 2000s, due to rising obesity rates, rising homicides, and the massive damage caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Finally, Asians and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders outlive other Americans. Is there anything we can learn from them? A Confluence of factors It may be in play. They tend to have relatively higher socioeconomic status, lower rates of obesity, and the lowest smoking rates of any ethnic group in the United States, and healthier traditional cooking may also contribute to their longevity.
Closing health disparities
Overall, the study reveals that the shocking gap in life expectancy in the United States has widened to a precipice.
“The extent and magnitude of health disparities in the United States is truly alarming,” the authors wrote. “In a country with the wealth and resources of the United States of America, it is unacceptable that so many people live with conditions and health outcomes similar to those in a completely different country.”
America is the richest country on Earth, its life expectancy is average, Ranked 48 out of 200 countries. However, tens of millions of people living in some parts of the country live as long as the healthiest people in the world. By observing them, we have a good idea of how to boost everyone else’s life expectancy: access to health care, opportunity, and quality education are crucial. This simply requires resources, of which the United States has plenty.
The researchers call for a massive effort to raise the life expectancy of sick Americans, thus reuniting the country from two American continents to one nation.
“It is time for us to take collective action; invest in healthcare, education, and equitable employment opportunities; and challenge the systemic barriers that create and perpetuate these disparities.”
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