Life Expectancy in U.S.: New Data Reveal California, Hawaii Residents Tend to Live Longer

The recently published 2019 National Vital Statistics report showed the states across the U.S. with the highest life expectancy. Hawaii took first place with its average life expectancy of 80.9 years.

Following Hawaii with the highest life expectancies were California, Washington state and Colorado. New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont were also on the list, according to an Insider report.

The national average life expectancy for 2019 was 78.8, which is a slight increase from 2018. However, the data were collected before the onset of the pandemic. The effects of the COVID on life expectancy have yet to be considered.

Elizabeth Arias, the lead author of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, noted that life expectancy and socioeconomic status tend to follow "similar geographic patterns."

Arias noted that well-to-do areas had really high life expectancies. She added that only nine percent of residents in Hawaii lived below the poverty line in 2019.

States with high life expectancy had an average of 80 years, except for Vermont, which stands at 79.8.

In addition, states with the highest life expectancy, excluding Vermont, have median incomes between $5,000 to $15,000 higher than the national average in 2019.

USA States With Lower Life Expectancy

States that were below the national average of life expectancy include West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, as well as Mississippi.

In addition, Mississippi also had the greatest share of people with 19.5 percent living below the poverty line in 2019, according to an NBC News report.

Others states with low life expectancies also had a share of people living under the poverty line.

States of Louisiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and South Carolina all had more than 13.5 percent of the population below the poverty line in 2019.

Arias noted that heart disease, cancer, and stroke were the leading causes of death in those areas.

The lead author of the report said that she is sure that the life expectancy report will be different in 2020, which will be released next year.

The new report does not mention race. However, CDC noted that there were sharp rises in death rates in 2020 that affected Black and Hispanic Americans the hardest.

In 2020, the deaths for Hispanic men increased around 43 percent and more than 32 percent for Hispanic women.

Meanwhile, Arias said that the gap used to be higher in life expectancy, with about 7.8 years in 1978.

She contributed the wide gap to smoking, according to an ABC 11 News report.

Arias said that males took up smoking a lot earlier than females did, adding that it was with much higher prevalence.

However, she said that females started to smoke close to levels that men smoked, with men starting to quit. Women have then followed but not at the same pace.

She also connected the low life expectancy rates in the southern states, noting that smoking is also prevalent there.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: US life expectancy by state in 2019: CDC report - from ABC News