Posted on 02/04/2014 9:20:49 AM PST by James C. Bennett
Americans are living longer, healthier lives—79.8 years on average—ranking 35th in the world in terms of life expectancy from birth. But where you live in the United States has a drastic impact on how far over or under the average your personal timeline will be. This illuminating map by the non-profit Measure of America shows how long you've likely got, and what country it's most similar to.
Hawaiians top the longevity list with an average age of 81.3 years—equal to Barbados but still lagging far behind Japan's average of 84 years—while Mississippi is dead last with a paltry average age of just 75 years, which is Syria-level expectancy.
There are a myriad of factors that impact one's lifespan—from environment, to diet, to healthcare access, to income, to demographics, and these figures only constitute a general trend for each state. Still, it's interesting to see that even as America sees itself as the world's hegemonic power cannot match the clean living habits of many European and Asian nations. [The Atlantic]
Image: Olga Khazan/measureofamerica.org L
The variances within the states are far greater than between the states. The best predictor is gender. The second is lifestyle. The state where you live at the time has no influence on life expectancy.
“mot” s/b “most”...
My personal life expectancy is some part of whatever day I wake up.
I would say because of the money and that they can afford excellent health care outside of Obamacare.
Will they soon wake up to the Obamacare nightmare (trademarking that!)>
Medical care and abortion rates would be my guess. The one thing that pushes life expectancy averages up is low infant mortality.
States where abortion is prevalent would be where ending high risk pregnancies is more common, thus reducing the infant mortality rate. States with high levels of medical care would also be where more pregnancies are rated high risk or where more fetuses are rated defective.
High levels of medical care would improve infant mortality by both ending more pregnancies and by saving more of the high risk infants whose parents reject eugenic culling.
I've done some serious thinking about what life is like just lying there.
“These broad brushstroke statistics are meaningless without a breakdown by race, gender and ethnicity. Otherwise, it’s apples to oranges.”
Across several areas of measurement, blacks greatly influence the statistics.
Crime, Murder
Education
Health, Life expectancy
etc.
Such statistics are rarely presented, but it would be enlightening and devastating to see them.
My greatgrandmother was born in 1855. She had 17 children of which 9 lived. I remember attending her birthday party in Monroe, MI (through which passes the River Raisin) in 1964, the year she died at the age of 109.
Yup, and if you throw abortions into the stats, the average would drop to 50.
The world’s most expensive health care system provides a life expectancy even with the likes of Syria, Dominica, Chile and MEXICO?
And it is going to get even more expensive and provide less health care?
WE are well and truly screwed up.
Old people are going to die when they get old and all the money in the world can’t stop that.
The wife’s folks just moved from their own home into assisted living. Her Dad is 93 and her Mom is 90. He was a ball-turret gunner on a B-17 in WW2.They married right after the war. PS; they are from Minnesota.
japan’s number will be falling big time very shortly.
very, very significantly falling.
sanitation is the #1 thing in reducing sicknesses in people. so many xmission vectors are rendered to very small percentages. otherwise they are huge problems b/c they not only transmit, their numbers explode due to the sanitation problem they live off of. becomes epidemic/pandemic.
I discovered the same thing. My mom died in 2007 just 3 months shy of being 103. She has a cousin who is 106. My grandmother was in her 90’s and my great grandfather was in his 90’’s when they died. They worked hard all their lives and that had a lot to do with their ages.
Diet and lifestyle seem to be the main variables. Poorer people tend to eat more processed foods and fast foods out of necessity. Physical labor is less needed to obtain food and water. They are less able to afford visits to the doctor. The obese person using an electric cart to shop at a grocery store in Huntington, West Virginia, or Meridian, Mississippi probably had a great great grandmother who grew her own vegetables, raised her own chickens, and hauled water from a well. They tend to have less of a future orientation, so they defer exercise regimens.
While sanitation and medical knowledge have improved immensely in the last century, the effects of poor diet and lifestyle choices are evident in the disparities among the states.
And as one of those boomers(I’m 61) I’m torn between requiring that social security be fully funded(more taxes) and the burden it will place on future generations. I guess I’d settle for reduced benefits if they raise the earnings ceiling but what about people that can’t work. I’m not in poverty but what about an old lady that just has social security to live on. Could we blame her for voting for the dems if they promise her no cuts in SS? Our society is on a precipice and there are no good options. It just doesn’t work out if you do the math.
As a Doctor told my brother when he was discussing heredity versus non-heridity issues in predicting how senior years cardiovascular disease will impact your longevity:
(Paraphrase) Keep in mind that while fish oil, exercise, diet and controling blood chemistry play a part in balancing your genetic disposition to cardiovascular disease, the genetic predisposition will still contol 85% of the advancement with controlable measures accounting for 15%.
How many of the foreign statistics can actually be trusted?
Remember how “Japan is so much better than America, look at all their centennarians” and it turned there was loads of fakery and scamming the system by not reporting grandma’s death and continuing to collect benefits.
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