The states with the longest and shortest life expectancies, according to the CDC

Life expectancy at birth was higher for females in all states, with women more likely to outlive men by five years

CDC publishes report ranking states by life expectancy (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

People born in Hawaii have the highest life expectancy at birth of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which examined state-by-state mortality.

The life expectancies by state, which were published in the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Reports, were found by analysing individual state mortality and population estimates from 2018, as well as “state-specific death and population counts for Medicare beneficiaries aged 66 to 99” for the year of 2018.

Overall, the life expectancy of an average American in the given year was 78.7 years, with women found to have an increased life expectancy of 81.2 years.

However, when the data was broken down by state, the findings showed a notable difference in life expectancy, with southern states found to have the lowest life expectancy in the country while “states with the highest life expectancy at birth are predominantly western and northeastern states,” the CDC said.

West Virginia ranked 51st in the report, with the CDC finding that the state had “the lowest life expectancy among the 50 states and DC for the total, male, and female populations, with life expectancies at birth of 74.4, 71.7, and 77.3 years, respectively”.

Read more: US life expectancy drops a year in pandemic, most since WWII

The lower numbers were not restricted to the southern state, as the report noted that Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina and Missouri all ranked in the bottom 10 states.

Alternatively, in Hawaii, which ranked first, the life expectancy at birth was 81 years, with California ranking first for males with an estimated life span of 78.4 years and second overall, according to the CDC.

New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey and Rhode Island also made it to the top 10, while life expectancy at birth was higher for females in all states and the District of Columbia, the report stated.

Interestingly, the states which were found to have the largest sex differences in life expectancy were “those with lower life expectancy at birth, while the smallest sex differences are found mostly among states with higher life expectancy,” the CDC said.

Findings published in January 2020 did show a slight increase in overall life expectancy in 2018 from the year before, however, with the CDC noting an increase of 0.1 year from 2017.

However, a report released by the agency in February 2021 found that life expectancy had fallen by a year in the first half of 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As for the leading causes of death in the US, in 2018, the 10 leading causes, which are heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide had remained the same as in 2017.