(WKRN/NEXSTAR) – A report released Thursday, by the National Center for Health Statistics, found life expectancy in the U.S. can vary wildly based on which state you were born in. According to the data, Hawaii residents had the highest life expectancy at birth at 80.9 years. On the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi had the lowest at 74.4 years.
So where did Tennessee land on the list?
The Volunteer State landed near the bottom of the list. Tennessee ranks 47th overall, with an average life expectancy of 75.6. For men in the state, the average life expectancy is 72.8 (48th overall) and for women, it’s 78.5 (45th overall), according to the CDC data.
Across the board, life expectancy was longer for women in every state – but it varied by how much longer. The gap between expected outcomes for men and women in Tennessee is one of the highest at 5.7 years (9th overall). Two of Tennessee’s neighbor states finished in the top 3 – Mississippi’s 6.4 years gap ranked #1, while Alabama landed at #3 with a 6-year gap between men and women.
In the map below, states shaded in dark green have the highest life expectancies. Pale blue represents the lowest.
Nine states have life expectancies above 80 years old: Hawaii, California, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, and Colorado.
The average life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.8, 3.2 years higher than the average life expectancy in Tennessee.
While the report was released Thursday, it uses data collected in 2019 and therefore does not reflect any changes in life expectancy that may have occurred during the coronavirus pandemic. The Hill reports more recent data showed a sustained drop in Americans’ life expectancy for the first time since the Spanish Flu over a century ago.
You can see the full report by the National Center for Health Statistics here.
