If you are you interested in your life expectancy based on your location, place your ZIP code into Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s internet site. You can easily compare ZIP codes’ results if you are thinking of relocating.
Moreover, a new, first-of-its-kind map from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), encourages one to explore detailed life expectancy estimates across the United States, down to the census tract level. ZIP codes are further divided into census tracts (of about 4,000 people on average with a range of 1,200 to 8,000) that can yield more specific, geographically sized, life expectancy averages.
Obviously, an average can include wide variation even among people living in the same census tract. Geographically close locations of only a few blocks can demonstrate gaps as much as a decade of average life expectancy.
Even more disquieting than life expectancy gaps in America is the sad fact that life expectancy in the U.S., even before COVID, has been dropping faster than in other developed nations. For the past 40 years our nation has fallen further and further behind in life expectancy than other peer nations. Sadly, since 2014 this negative trend has accelerated, possibly due to the diseases of despair—drug addiction, alcoholism, and suicide.
Obviously, COVID lowered life expectancy across the world. The decrease in life expectancy in the U.S. was 2.26 years from 2019 to 2021. Astoundingly, peer nations during the same time only lost 0.12 years, thus widening the gap between our nation and others to more than five years.
Concerningly, American Black and Hispanic populations’ average losses exceeded others at home and in other high-income countries. Additionally, lower socioeconomic status translates statistically to increased mortality among working-age adults. Further, sub-populations with a 4-year college degree experienced life expectancy lengthening versus shortening for those without this educational experience. Household earnings also parallel life expectancy. At the extremes, comparing the top and bottom 5% household earnings from 2001 to 2014 at 40 years of age showed a life expectancy gap of almost ten years.
Social and economic forces are central drivers of the decline in U.S. life expectancy. No matter how much money America spends on healthcare, and it spends the most by far of any nation in absolute and per-capita measures, life expectancy will not be extended.
Using a census tract or ZIP code’s life expectancy as a cost-free longitudinal metric to reward healthcare systems or others interested in mission-driven well-being and health makes sense. The current fee-for-service system has proven that adding expense does not lead to longer life expectancy. In fact, America has continued to fall behind other nations which have embraced universal healthcare.
“We spend a fortune on medical care and we're a high-income country. We should be able to do far better," implored Noreen Goldman, a demographer at Princeton University. Now is the time for a change with an established metric and a novel approach.