The number of years you can expect to live may depend on where you live. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports the disparity can be as much as 20 years.
The national average for men and women in the U.S. is 79.1 years and, at 78.7, Harris County is very near that average.
Dr. Steffanie Campbell and Houston’s Kelsey-Seybold says several factors go into life expectancy averages.
“We have a lot of chronic diseases right here in Houston,” Campbell says. “I think key to that is that we also have a lot of medical centers, so health care is a lot easier to access than it is in some of the more remote counties.”
People who live in Summit County, Colorado, have a life expectancy of almost 87 years. In the southwest corner of South Dakota life expectancy is less than 67 years.
“We should be downright ashamed,” she says, “as one of the leading nations, that we have this much disparity in life expectancy.”