If you want to live into a ripe old age move to Hawaii. Researchers from the University of Washington track health disparities from state to state, and longevity, reported annually in the Global Burden of Disease Report. They find that Hawaiian residents live longest, with a life expectancy of 81.3 years (up from 78.5 in 1990).
But we’re not doing so bad in Texas.
“We compare pretty well,” says Dr. Carmel Dyer, executive director of the UT Health Consortium on Aging. She is ranked in the top 1% of geriatricians by US News and World Report. “The overall average life expectancy for the U.S. is 78.8. Texas is 78.5.”
The ten states that have the lowest probability of premature death were Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington.
The lowest is Mississippi at 74.7.
The states with the highest probability of premature death, besides Mississippi, are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
“The leading causes of death in Texas are coronary artery disease, stroke, lung disease, lung cancer, and Alzheimers Disease, and that’s in the overall population. It’s similar to what we see across the country,” says Dr. Dyer.