Mississippi soybean farmer, Arkansas.
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If you were born in the South, you are likely to have a shorter life expectancy compared to the rest of the United States, according to newly released data from the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.
The findings, published by the National Vital Statistics Reports, examined statewide mortality and population estimates for 2018, as well as state specific mortality and population numbers for older Medicare beneficiaries that year.
The CDC found that Americans are expected to live 78.7 years at birth, although women are more likely to survive men in 5 years across the country, according to the report. The southern states got worse when compared to their counterparts in the Northeast and West.
West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina and Missouri, all ranked among the lowest ten states in life expectancy, respectively, according to the CDC. West Virginia, which had a life expectancy of 74.4 years, obtained the lowest rating for men and women.
“With some exceptions, the states with the largest sex differences are those with the lowest life expectancy at birth, while the smallest sex differences are found mainly among the states with the longest life expectancy,” wrote CDC researchers in the report.
Meanwhile, Hawaii took first place for the state with the longest life expectancy in 81 years. The state of Aloha has been followed by California, New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey and Rhode Island to complete the top ten states where you will live the longest.
The CDC’s most recent life expectancy figures come just under a month after the agency published an interim report in February, which found that life expectancy during the pandemic dropped by one year in the first half of 2020 – the biggest decline since the 2nd World War.
According to that report, the CDC predicted that Americans’ life expectancy at birth in 2020 was 77.8 years.
– Reuters contributed to this report.