How long do you expect to Live?

How Long Do You Expect To Live?

Many of us are wondering about life expectancy especially as it relates to retirement income and savings/pension payments available to sustain us after our working years. There is a new study pondering unknown variables in the mix of determining life expectancy.


New Study Suggests Where You Live, Income Contribute To Lifespanby Blanche Evans
Middle and low income levels across the country are contributing to vastly different life expectancies across racial boundaries, but so is location. What's troubling is that the medical community doesn't know why folks live longer in one part of the country than another, even when they make less money.
According to a new study called the Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities Across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States, a joint effort by researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University Initiative for Global Health, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and the University of California, there is a gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies when data from counties and races are combined.
In an attempt to explore the causes of the disparities, the researchers identified eight "Americas," based on race, location of the county of residence, population density, race-specific county-level per capita income, and cumulative homicide rate.
Asian - 10.4 million - average per capita income $21,566, life expectancy 84.9 years
Northland low-income rural white - 3.6 million - $17,758, 79 years
Middle America - 214.0 million, $24,640, 77.9 years
Low-income whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley - 16.6 million - $16,390, 75 years
Western Native American- 1.0 million - $10,029, 72.7 years
Black Middle America - 23.4 million - $15, 412, 72.9 years
Southern low-income rural black - 5.8 million - $10,463, 71.2 years
High-risk urban black - 7.5 million - $14,800, 71.1 years
Published in Realty Times September 14, 2006
Edited by: Jim Lubinsky
Read the entire article at
http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060914_lifespanincome.htm