Special Report
Cities With the Longest Life Expectancy in Every State
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The U.S. death rate rose last year for the first time in a decade. This led to the first drop in life expectancy since 1993. The typical American in 2015 can expect to live 78.8 years, down slightly from 78.9 years in 2014. Heart disease and cancer remain the leading cause of deaths in the United States.
To highlight how life expectancy trends vary across the United States, 24/7 Wall St. listed the city in every state with the longest life expectancy at birth. Looking at all U.S. metro areas, life expectancy is highest in Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida, where life expectancy at birth is 83.5 years. In contrast, residents in Gadsden, Alabama have a life expectancy more than 10 years shorter.
Wealthier individuals tend to be healthier, and poorer individuals less healthy. In the poorer end of the income spectrum, especially for those living in poverty, income has an outsized impact on health. Adults living in poverty are nearly five times more likely to report being in poor or fair health than more affluent adults. The cities on this list tend to have higher household incomes and a smaller share of residents living in poverty than metro areas with shorter life expectancies. Poverty rates are lower than the national level in two-thirds of the 50 cities.
Click here to see the cities with the longest life expectancy in each state.
Click here to see the cities with the shortest life expectancy in each state
Another common trend among the cities with the longest life expectancy in their state is the tendency to report healthier behaviors than among cities with shorter life expectancies. In cities with shorter life expectancies, inactivity and unhealthy eating and unhealthy eating habits contribute to higher obesity rates. As an area’s obesity rate increases, the risk of life-shortening diseases also increases. Obesity rates in the majority of cities with the longest life expectancy in their state are lower than the nationwide obesity rate.
While every city on this list has the longest life expectancy in their state, these life expectancies are not necessarily long in a national context. For example, because life expectancy is so low in Alabama, even in Daphne-Fairhope-Foley — the metro area with the longest life expectancy in the state — residents are expected to live shorter lives than the typical American.
To determine the metropolitan areas in each state where people live the longest, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2013 county-level life expectancy at birth figures provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a global research center affiliated with the University of Washington. The data came from the report, “United States Life Expectancy Estimates by County 1985-2013.” Using death records data from the National Center for Health Statistics, researchers applied a mixed effects Poisson statistical model and Gaussian Process Regression to estimate age-specific mortality rates for U.S. counties from 1985 to 2013.
To obtain metro area life expectancy estimates, we mapped the counties to their corresponding metro areas and calculated the average life expectancy by sex across all counties in a given metro area. County estimates were weighted by 2013 5-year population figures from the American Community Survey (ACS). To ensure 2008 and 2013 life expectancy estimates were comparable, both estimates were weighted by populations in 2013.
Metro-level median household income came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey. Obesity rates came from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
These are the metro areas in each state where people live the longest.
1. Alabama
> Metro area: Daphne-Fairhope-Foley
> Life expectancy: 78.2 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 26.7%
> Median household income: $52,003
2. Alaska
> Metro area: Fairbanks
> Life expectancy: 79.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 28.6%
> Median household income: $72,975
3. Arizona
> Metro area: Yuma
> Life expectancy: 80.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 30.4%
> Median household income: $40,539
4. Arkansas
> Metro area: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
> Life expectancy: 78.4 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 28.9%
> Median household income: $50,788
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5. California
> Metro area: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara
> Life expectancy: 83.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 19.6%
> Median household income: $101,980
6. Colorado
> Metro area: Fort Collins
> Life expectancy: 81.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 18.9%
> Median household income: $64,919
7. Connecticut
> Metro area: Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk
> Life expectancy: 82.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 20.8%
> Median household income: $86,414
8. Delaware
> Metro area: Dover
> Life expectancy: 77.6 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 33.2%
> Median household income: $56,778
9. Florida
> Metro area: Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island
> Life expectancy: 83.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 18.8%
> Median household income: $62,126
10. Georgia
> Metro area: Gainesville
> Life expectancy: 78.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.7%
> Median household income: $55,009
11. Hawaii
> Metro area: Urban Honolulu
> Life expectancy: 81.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 21.9%
> Median household income: $77,273
12. Idaho
> Metro area: Boise City
> Life expectancy: 80.0 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 26.8%
> Median household income: $51,925
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13. Illinois
> Metro area: Champaign-Urbana
> Life expectancy: 80.0 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 27.1%
> Median household income: $51,600
14. Indiana
> Metro area: Bloomington
> Life expectancy: 79.2 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 22.5%
> Median household income: $44,376
15. Iowa
> Metro area: Ames
> Life expectancy: 82.0 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.6%
> Median household income: $50,811
16. Kansas
> Metro area: Lawrence
> Life expectancy: 80.4 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 23.3%
> Median household income: $52,964
17. Kentucky
> Metro area: Lexington-Fayette
> Life expectancy: 78.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 28.2%
> Median household income: $53,117
18. Louisiana
> Metro area: New Orleans-Metairie
> Life expectancy: 76.7 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 31.9%
> Median household income: $48,343
19. Maine
> Metro area: Portland-South Portland
> Life expectancy: 80.2 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 24.1%
> Median household income: $62,074
20. Maryland
> Metro area: California-Lexington Park
> Life expectancy: 78.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 30.3%
> Median household income: $85,163
21. Massachusetts
> Metro area: Boston-Cambridge-Newton
> Life expectancy: 81.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 22.9%
> Median household income: $78,800
22. Michigan
> Metro area: Ann Arbor
> Life expectancy: 81.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 23.3%
> Median household income: $61,977
23. Minnesota
> Metro area: Rochester
> Life expectancy: 81.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.1%
> Median household income: $65,627
24. Mississippi
> Metro area: Jackson
> Life expectancy: 75.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 33.8%
> Median household income: $46,757
25. Missouri
> Metro area: Columbia
> Life expectancy: 79.4 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 27.3%
> Median household income: $50,520
26. Montana
> Metro area: Missoula
> Life expectancy: 79.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 21.4%
> Median household income: $42,815
27. Nebraska
> Metro area: Lincoln
> Life expectancy: 80.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 26.3%
> Median household income: $54,002
28. Nevada
> Metro area: Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise
> Life expectancy: 78.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.8%
> Median household income: $51,552
29. New Hampshire
> Metro area: Manchester-Nashua
> Life expectancy: 80.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 27.3%
> Median household income: $74,323
30. New Jersey
> Metro area: Trenton
> Life expectancy: 79.7 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 24.3%
> Median household income: $72,417
31. New Mexico
> Metro area: Santa Fe
> Life expectancy: 80.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 13.8%
> Median household income: $55,676
32. New York
> Metro area: New York-Newark-Jersey City
> Life expectancy: 81.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 22.8%
> Median household income: $68,743
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33. North Carolina
> Metro area: Raleigh
> Life expectancy: 80.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 26.8%
> Median household income: $65,778
34. North Dakota
> Metro area: Fargo
> Life expectancy: 80.3 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 27.5%
> Median household income: $56,051
35. Ohio
> Metro area: Canton-Massillon
> Life expectancy: 78.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 31.1%
> Median household income: $49,313
36. Oklahoma
> Metro area: Oklahoma City
> Life expectancy: 76.4 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 30.8%
> Median household income: $52,221
37. Oregon
> Metro area: Corvallis
> Life expectancy: 82.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 19.7%
> Median household income: $52,852
38. Pennsylvania
> Metro area: State College
> Life expectancy: 81.8 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.3%
> Median household income: $56,337
39. Rhode Island
> Metro area: Providence-Warwick
> Life expectancy: 79.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 27.0%
> Median household income: $58,965
40. South Carolina
> Metro area: Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort
> Life expectancy: 80.7 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 24.6%
> Median household income: $55,923
41. South Dakota
> Metro area: Sioux Falls
> Life expectancy: 80.1 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 28.1%
> Median household income: $59,844
42. Tennessee
> Metro area: Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin
> Life expectancy: 77.8 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 32.0%
> Median household income: $57,985
43. Texas
> Metro area: Austin-Round Rock
> Life expectancy: 80.9 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 23.3%
> Median household income: $67,195
44. Utah
> Metro area: Logan
> Life expectancy: 81.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 23.0%
> Median household income: $51,555
45. Vermont
> Metro area: Burlington-South Burlington
> Life expectancy: 80.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 22.7%
> Median household income: $66,807
46. Virginia
> Metro area: Charlottesville
> Life expectancy: 80.5 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.8%
> Median household income: $63,918
47. Washington
> Metro area: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue
> Life expectancy: 80.8 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 25.5%
> Median household income: $75,331
48. West Virginia
> Metro area: Morgantown
> Life expectancy: 78.4 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 29.5%
> Median household income: $45,941
49. Wisconsin
> Metro area: Madison
> Life expectancy: 80.8 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 23.9%
> Median household income: $64,174
50. Wyoming
> Metro area: Cheyenne
> Life expectancy: 79.0 yrs.
> Obesity rate: 28.2%
> Median household income: $60,599
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