Such a shame the South is going down the tubes and dying so much earlier
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Longer life expectancy? Not if you live in Kentucky
While the vast majority of the country experienced increases in life expectancy since 1980, several counties saw decreases, with eight of the 10 cities with the largest decreases in Kentucky. They include:
Owsley County, Kentucky (-3 percent)
Lee County, Kentucky (-2 percent)
Leslie County, Kentucky (-1.9 percent)
Breathitt County, Kentucky (-1.4 percent)
Clay County, Kentucky (-1.3 percent)
Powell County, Kentucky (-1.1 percent)
Estill County, Kentucky (-1 percent)
Perry County, Kentucky (-0.8 percent)
Kiowa County, Oklahoma (-0.7 percent)
Perry County, Alabama (-0.6 percent)
The study did yield some good news: all counties saw a drop in the risk of childhood deaths before the age of 5, and the gap between counties with the lowest and highest rates of such early deaths has narrowed since 1980.
While life expectancy in the United States has grown overall in the last few decades, not all Americans are benefitting equally. New research finds significant disparities, with people in certain parts of the country living more than 20 years longer than those in less fortunate communities.
Researchers the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) examined county-level death registration data to explore the extent of these geographic differences in the U.S.
The study, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that average life expectancy at birth increased from 73.8 years to 79.1 years between 1980 and 2014 for men and women. However, there was a 20.1-year difference between the counties with the highest and lowest life expectancies.