Life expectancy in New York State by county
New York counties by estimated life expectancy. Green is roughly the state average -- yellow below, blue above. (There are two clickable maps after the jump.)
Life expectancy at birth was a little more than 80.36 years in New York State in 2014, according to a new study out this week.
That was good for 6th best in the nation. And it's up 73.19 years in 1980.
Those estimates are from a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine this week looking at how life expectancy varies across counties in United States. And as the researchers reported, there was wide variation -- some 20 years of difference between the high and low ends.
Here's a good interactive map of the numbers. And here are a few articles in the popular press about the overall study -- at FiveThirtyEight and The Atlantic.
New York counties didn't exhibit such a wide range, but there were some differences.
The difference between the New York county with the highest life expectancy -- Rockland, at 82.54 years -- and the lowest -- Sullivan, at 78.03 years -- was a little more than 4.5 years. Here's how the Capital Region core stacked up (state county rank):
+ Albany: 80.07 (18)
+ Rensselaer: 78.78 (49)
+ Saratoga: 81 (7)
+ Schenectady: 79.51 (30)
The authors of the JAMA paper report that the differences in counties across the nation can be explained by socioeconomic and race factors, behavior, and (to a lesser extent) health care differences.
So it's not really surprising to see which counties around New York ranked the highest for life expectancy: Manhattan, the NYC suburbs, Saratoga, Tompkins (Ithaca) -- all places that have generally done well economically in recent years.
Maps
The numbers for the New York counties are rolled into a couple of clickable maps at the top in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.
Earlier
+ Saratoga County ranked as the "healthiest" county in New York State
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Comments
I'd love to see the information further broken down by income level. I remember seeing some data that life expectancy is actually trending down for lower income Americans while those at higher incomes continue to rise.
And maybe some comparison with a country with universal healthcare, maybe say Canada or Australia?
... said Sean on May 10, 2017 at 3:53 PM | link