Special Report

Cities With the Longest Life Expectancy in Every State

Steven Peters

Published: December 19, 2016 10:30 pm

Last Updated: March 20, 2020 1:56 pm

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

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

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