NJ Has Among Highest Life Expectancy In U.S.: Report

NEW JERSEY — Life expectancy varies by state all across the country. A new federal report, that shows wide regional disparities in life expectancy, ranks Hawaii as No. 1 for the highest average of life expectancy in the country.

On average, the U.S life expectancy at birth in 2019 was 78.8 years, a 0.1 percent increase from 2018, according to death records in U.S states analyzed by the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Jersey ranked 7th at 80.1 years among the states for highest life expectancy at birth.

The report broke down the data further, giving the life expectancy for males and females within a state. Males in New Jersey ranked No. 10 at 77.6 and women ranked No. 4 at 82.6. Statewide, women live 4.9 years longer than men.

When it came to life expectancy at 65, New Jersey ranked No. 8 at 20 years. The male life expectancy at 65 was ranked No.9 at 18.6. It was 21.2 years for females, ranking in the eighth spot.

Comparatively, in New York, the life expectancy at birth was ranked No. 3 at 80.7 years with males and females also at the No. 3 spot with 78.2 and 83.1 years.

On a nationwide scale, women live longer than men by 5.1 years, according to the report. While the report doesn’t explain the differences in life expectancies for men and women, in an ABC News interview, Dr. Elizabeth Arias, director of U.S Life Tables at the National Center for Health Statistics, said smoking is likely the primary reason.

“So, males took up smoking a lot earlier than females did and with much higher prevalences,” she said in the interview. “But then, over the decades, females began to smoke close to levels that men smoked. And, as men have been quitting, women have followed but not at the same pace.”

Overall, Hawaii ranked No. 1 in life expectancy at birth with an average of 80.9 years. Mississippi ranked No. 51 with an average of 74.4 years. According to the report, states with the lowest life expectancy at birth are mostly Southern states, whereas states with the highest life expectancy at birth are mostly Western and Northeastern states.

“Well, we do know that mortality from the leading causes of death like heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, tends to be higher in the South and Southeast than in New England, for instance, and the Western states,” Arias said in the interview. “Smoking prevalence is also higher in the Southern states. I believe there are also higher rates of poverty throughout the South.”

However, the federal report released doesn’t reflect COVID-19 mortality rates, which cut life expectancy by nearly two years, the largest one-year drop since World War II, according to CDC officials.

The preliminary 2020 mortality data released early last year reported that COVID-19 cut life expectancy by 1.8 years in 2020. It also showed that there are racial disparities.

In 2020, death rates for Black and Hispanic Americans increased by 43 percent and 32 percent for Hispanic males and females. It increased 28 percent and 25 percent for Black males and females. Compared to a 13 percent and 12 percent increase in death rates for white males and females.

In an NBC report, Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University said one of the most jolting things in the report is the racial disparities.

“This shouldn’t be happening,” Woolf said in the report. “There is this deeply embedded health consequence of systemic racism.”