Across the United States, life expectancies routinely fail to meet the standards set by other developed nations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, differences in life expectancy between the United States and other developed nations, such as Switzerland and Japan, are dramatic.
One major problem facing the United States is the extreme disparity in life expectancies among states. In Mississippi, the life expectancy at birth was just 75 years as of 2010, the lowest in the nation. In both Hawaii and Minnesota, a resident born in 2010 could expect to live 81 years on average, six years more than in Mississippi.
And Louisiana isn’t faring much better than Mississippi when it comes to life expectancy. According to the latest figures from the CDC, Louisiana’s average life span is just 75.7 years—the third-lowest rate in the U.S.
“Louisiana had some of the highest rates of smoking, inactivity, and obesity in the nation,” says an analysis of the CDC figures by financial news website 24/7 Wall Street. “More than 33% of people in the state were obese in 2013, versus 29.4% of all Americans. Poverty is a major factor contributing to obesity, and Louisianans are quite poor. Nearly 20% of the state’s population lived in poverty in 2013, the third-highest rate nationwide. Obesity, in turn, contributes to the state’s high level of diabetes, which afflicted 11.6% of the population in 2013.”
Following Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia are tied, having the nation’s second-lowest life expectancy rate: 75.4 years. USA Today has the full story.
