List of U.S. states and territories by life expectancy

This article presents a list of United States states sorted by their life expectancy at birth and by race/ethnicity in every state where the population of that racial or ethnic group is sufficiently large for robust estimates. The data is taken from the Measure of America's third national human development report, The Measure of America 2013–2014,^[1][2] and from the CIA World Factbook for the territories.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Overall, life expectancy at birth in Hawaii, Minnesota and Puerto Rico are among the longest in the nation, while life expectancy at birth in Mississippi and American Samoa are among the shortest in the nation.

Map of US states by life expectancy at birth (years)
Legend:

80–81.3   79.5–80.0   78.4–79.5

77.2–78.4   75.0–77.2

Life expectancy in the US, 1900–2011^[8]

Rankings

Rank Rank (50 states & DC) State Life Expectancy, All (in years) Life Expectancy, White (in years) Life Expectancy, African American (in years) Life Expectancy, Asian American (in years) Life Expectancy, Latino (in years) Life Expectancy, Native American (in years) 01 01  Hawaii 81.3 81.2 79.7 83.5 87.3 70.2 02 02  Minnesota 81.1 80.4 82.5 82.0 76.8 – 03 –  Puerto Rico 80.9 – – – – – 04 03  Connecticut 80.8 81.0 77.8 89.1 83.1 – 04 03  California 80.8 79.8 75.1 86.3 83.2 80.2 06 05  Massachusetts 80.5 80.4 78.8 89.1 87.1 – 06 05  New York 80.5 80.5 77.4 88.6 83.5 – 06 05  Vermont 80.5 80.4 84.4 – – – 09 08  New Hampshire 80.3 80.1 86.8 – – – 09 08  New Jersey 80.3 80.3 75.5 89.4 84.7 – 11 10  Utah 80.2 80.1 74.3 84.6 82.1 – 12 11  Colorado 80.0 80.2 76.7 87.4 79.4 – 12 11  Wisconsin 80.0 80.3 74.0 86.4 86.0 72.5 14 13  Washington 79.9 79.7 77.5 85.4 85.4 73.8 14 13  Rhode Island 79.9 79.7 71.6 – – – 16 15  Nebraska 79.8 80.0 73.9 – 85.5 – 17 16  Iowa 79.7 79.8 75.3 – – – 18 17  Arizona 79.6 79.8 76.5 86.7 80.8 72.7 19 18   North Dakota 79.5 80.2 84.2 – – – 19 18  Oregon 79.5 79.2 77.2 86.2 85.4 – 19 18  Idaho 79.5 79.4 83.3 – 83.4 – 19 18  South Dakota 79.5 80.4 81.7 – – 68.2 23 22  Florida 79.4 79.1 75.8 88.9 83.1 – 23 –  U.S. Virgin Islands 79.4 – – – – – 25 23  Maine 79.2 79.1 81.8 – – – 26 24  Virginia 79.0 79.4 75.3 87.2 88.3 – 26 24  Illinois 79.0 79.3 73.7 87.9 85.3 – – United States average 78.9 28 26  Maryland 78.8 79.4 75.5 88.2 – – 29 27  Kansas 78.7 78.8 73.6 – 83.5 – 30 28  Pennsylvania 78.5 78.9 73.4 89.0 85.3 – 30 28  Montana 78.5 79.1 83.4 – – 69.2 30 28  Texas 78.5 79.0 79.4 88.1 80.7 – 33 31  New Mexico 78.4 79.0 75.2 – 78.8 74.8 33 31  Delaware 78.4 78.6 75.4 – – – 35 33  Wyoming 78.3 78.4 83.5 – – – 35 33  Alaska 78.3 79.4 79.3 – – 70.5 37 35  Michigan 78.2 79.0 73.4 88.7 80.0 75.3 38 36  Nevada 78.1 76.7 75.9 88.1 84.7 – 39 37  North Carolina 77.8 78.3 74.7 88.9 – 76.6 39 37  Ohio 77.8 78.1 73.9 87.0 85.3 – 41 39  Indiana 77.6 77.7 73.8 88.1 85.9 – 42 40  Missouri 77.5 77.7 74.2 – – – 43 41 Georgia 77.2 77.6 74.7 88.0 – – 44 42  South Carolina 77.0 77.8 74.0 – – – 45 43  District of Columbia 76.5 84.3 71.6 – – – 46 44  Tennessee 76.3 76.7 72.9 84.2 – – 47 45  Arkansas 76.0 76.3 72.2 – – – 47 –  Guam 76.0 – – – – – 47 45  Kentucky 76.0 76.0 73.5 – – – 50 47  Oklahoma 75.9 76.0 72.8 – 85.0 73.8 51 48  Louisiana 75.7 76.7 72.4 85.6 – – 52 49  Alabama 75.4 76.0 72.9 85.3 – – 52 –  Northern Mariana Islands 75.4 – – – – – 52 50  West Virginia 75.4 75.4 72.8 – – – 55 51  Mississippi 75.0 76.1 72.4 – – – 56 –  American Samoa 73.4 – – – – –

Source: Measure of America calculations using mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics 2009, and population data from the CDC WONDER database. Source for the territories is the CIA World Factbook.

Note: Life expectancy values have been rounded to one decimal place. As a result, the values appear to be tied in several instances but the rankings reflect the original calculations, not the rounded values. In cases where there is no life expectancy estimate, the population of that group is too small to enable reliable estimates.

See also

• List of U.S. congressional districts by life expectancy
• List of U.S. counties with shortest life expectancy
• List of U.S. counties with longest life expectancy
• List of U.S. states by changes in life expectancy, 1985–2010
• List of Mexican states by life expectancy
• Thank God for Mississippi

References