Women Live Surprisingly Longer Than Men in Lake County

Women in Lake County live 4.2 years longer than men in the county. And they live longer than as women in neighboring Cuyahoga County. 

The life expectancy for women in Cuyahoga County is 79.9 years. In Lake, they live to the ripe old age of 80.6. 

Women in Lake County live longer (80.6) than the state average of 79.7 years for women. But they're a bit shy of the national average life expectancy of 80.8 years.

Using the map above, you can see how Lake County residents compare with the rest of Ohio and the nation.

Throughout the US, major improvements in life expectancy occurred in areas with large metropolises, like parts of California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, New York and Virginia. But the disparity is widening, with counties in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama seeing declines or stagnations in residents’ average age of death.

Researchers also found that women were living longer than men in every county in 2010. But men are catching up, having adding 5.3 years to their lives since 1985, while women only added 3.

Even more worrisome is that 45% of women in counties nationwide are dying younger now or at the same rate than they were in 1985. So while men are living longer in counties across the country, women are remaining stagnant in much of the country.

“As a nation, what we can do about that is have a concerted effort to tackle the key preventable causes in those communities where there is no improvement,” said IHME Director Christopher Murray. He told Patch that in places where there is stagnation, local communities should “focus on changing things there that we know can make a difference, like diet, tobacco, high blood pressure and physical inactivity.”

Editor's Note: This article includes reporting by Heather Martino.