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Life Expectancy

Congressional District Health Dashboard

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Why do we measure Life Expectancy?

Life expectancy is a key measure of health and well-being.1,2 It reflects a wide range of influences, from sociodemographic and macroeconomic conditions to the availability and use of healthcare resources and the impact of health-related behaviors, making it a comprehensive metric for assessing health status across geographies — ranging from countries to states and cities.3,4 Leading causes of lower life expectancy in the United States are cardiovascular disease deaths, cancer, diabetes, substance use, chronic kidney disease, homicide, and suicide.5-8

Within the United States, wide differences in life expectancy by geography and by race and ethnicity are also evident, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic period.9 States and regions with stronger health systems, more robust safety nets, and supportive social policies tend to report higher life expectancy.10,11 Neighborhood conditions further shape life expectancy; greater access to resources like safe housing, quality schools, and employment opportunities promote health and longevity.4,12-14 Other factors associated with differences in life expectancy include income, educational attainment and sex.15-18

Life expectancy reflects how socioeconomic and environmental factors, healthcare systems, and individual characteristics come together to shape how long people live. Tracking life expectancy across places and populations helps highlight where progress is being made, where gaps persist, and where investments can make the greatest impact.12,14,19

How do we measure Life Expectancy?

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a person would live, based on the mortality rate of a particular area in the current year.20

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths of Metric

Limitations of Metric

The life expectancy metric includes all deaths in a population in a given place, thus providing a snapshot of the entire community.

Life expectancy estimates for demographic subgroups are available, allowing characterization of health disparities across race and ethnicity and sex.

Multi-year data are available, making visible differences over time.

The calculations reported here have been tailored to address some challenges from small population sizes, such as missing age-specific death counts.21-24

Because many factors contribute to mortality, it can be difficult to pinpoint what causes differences in life expectancy between communities.25

Life Expectancy estimates are not available for all small populations due to data reliability concerns.26

Due to frequent underreporting of deaths in Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian and Alaska Native groups, life expectancy estimates for these populations may be overestimated.2

Race assignment on death certificates may not always be accurate.27

Calculation

Life expectancy is calculated by aggregating age-specific deaths and population counts from counties to congressional districts using a population-weighted aggregation method developed by the Dashboard team. We then apply Chiang’s abridged life table method, with several additional adjustments to address challenges associated with small populations. The U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (PEP) data are used for population denominators. Age intervals are 0, 1-4, and 10-year groups until age 85. Deaths that occur among individuals over age 85 are assigned to the 85+ group. For more information on the calculation, please refer to the Congressional District Health Dashboard Technical Document.

Data Source

Estimates for this metric are from Multiple Cause of Death Data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics. Multi-year data are available for this metric.

Years of Collection

For total population, calculated by the Dashboard Team using data from 2023, 1 year estimate.

For all specific demographic groups, including racial/ethnic subgroups and sex subgroups, calculated by the Dashboard Team using data from 2023, 3-year estimate.

References

  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Overall Health and Well-Being Measures. Healthy People 2030. https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/overall-health-and-well-being-measures

  2. Arias E, Xu J, Kochanek K. United States life tables, 2022. National Vital Statistics Reports [Internet]. National Center for Health Statistics (US); 2025.

  3. Wirayuda, A. A. B., & Chan, M. F. (2021). A Systematic Review of Sociodemographic, Macroeconomic, and Health Resources Factors on Life Expectancy. Asia-Pacific journal of public health, 33(4), 335–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539520983671

  4. Spoer BR, Nelson IS, Lee M, Vierse A, Chen AS, Titus AR, Thorpe LE, Gourevitch MN. Within-City Average Life Expectancy "Gaps": A Useful Health Equity Metric. J Urban Health. 2026 Jan 26. doi: 10.1007/s11524-025-01023-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41586991.

  5. Rakshit, S. & McGough, M. How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries? Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. January 31, 2025. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/#Life%20expectancy%20at%20birth,%20in%20years,%201980-2023

  6. Radley, D., Williams, R. D., Gunja, M., Baumgartner, J., & Gumas, E. Americans, No Matter the State They Live In, Die Younger Than People in Many Other Countries. The Commonwealth Fund. August 11, 2022. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/americans-no-matter-state-they-live-die-younger-people-many-other-countries

  7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.) Life Expectancy. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/sources-definitions/life-expectancy.htm

  8. Wager, E., Cotter, L., Panchal, N., & Cox, C. What drives differences in life expectancy between the U.S. and comparable countries? Peterson-KFF, Health System Tracker. February 14, 2025. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/what-drives-differences-in-life-expectancy-between-the-u-s-and-comparable-countries/

  9. USA Facts Team. Which states have the highest and lowest life expectancy? USAFacts. March 27, 2025. https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-highest-and-lowest-life-expectancy/

  10. Dwyer-Lindgren, L., Baumann, M., Li, Z., OKelly, Y., Schmidt, C., Searchinger, C., La Motte-Kerr, W., Bollyky, T., Mokdad, A., Murray, C. Ten Americas: a systematic analysis of life expectancy disparities in the USA. The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10469, 2299 - 2313. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01495-8/fulltext

  11. Holford, T.R., McKay, L., Tam, J., Jeon, J., Meza, R. (2025 April 28). All-Cause Mortality and Life Expectancy by Birth Cohort Across US States. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(4):e257695. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.7695

  12. Acevedo-Garcia, D. (2020, January 23). Why Neighborhoods—and the Policies That Shape Them—Matter, RWJF. https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/blog/2020/01/why-neighborhoods-and-the-policies-that-shape-them-matter.html

  13. RWJF (n.d.) What makes a long life? https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/our-research/interactives/whereyouliveaffectshowlongyoulive.html

  14. Gourevitch, M. (2019 August 22). The Power of Local Data in Action, RWJF. https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/blog/2019/08/the-power-of-local-data-in-action.html

  15. National Research Council. Committee on Population, National Research Council. Board on Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications, & National Academies of Sciences, E. (2015). The growing gap in life expectancy by income: implications for federal programs and policy responses. National Academies Press.

  16. The Equality of Opportunity Project. (n.d.). Life Expectancy vs. Income in the United States. http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/health/

  17. GBD US Health Disparities Collaborators (2022). Life expectancy by county, race, and ethnicity in the USA, 2000-19: a systematic analysis of health disparities. Lancet (London, England), 400(10345), 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00876-5

  18. Walker, E. R., McGee, R. E., & Druss, B. G. (2015). Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA psychiatry, 72(4), 334–341. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2502

  19. Parekh, A. (2025 January 17). Make Higher Life Expectancy the Nation's Health Priority. Bipartisan Policy Center. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/make-higher-life-expectancy-the-nations-health-priority/

  20. National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems. USALEEP Neighborhood Life Expectancy Project Message Guide. 2018; http://usaleep.nptoolkit.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/05/USALEEP-Message-Guide_Final.pdf. Accessed September 27, 2018.

  21. County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. Mortality and Life Expectancy Calculator. Updated 11/15/2019. Accessed 07/15/2025, 2025. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/resources/mortality-and-life-expectancy-calculator

  22. Public Health England. PHE Life Expectancy Calculator. Accessed 07/15/2025, 2025. https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/documents/phe%20life%20expectancy%20calculator.xlsm

  23. Lo E, Vatnik D, Benedetti A, Bourbeau R. Variance models of the last age interval and their impact on life expectancy at subnational scales. Demographic Research. 2016;35:399-454.

  24. Silcocks P, Jenner D, Reza R. Life expectancy as a summary of mortality in a population: statistical considerations and suitability for use by health authorities. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 2001;55(1):38-43.

  25. Chetty R, Stepner M, Abraham S, et al. The association between income and life expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014. Jama. 2016;315(16):1750-1766.

  26. Eayres D, Williams E. Evaluation of methodologies for small area life expectancy estimation. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 2004;58(3):243-249.

  27. Dougherty TM, Janitz AE, Williams MB, et al. Racial Misclassification in Mortality Records Among American Indians/Alaska Natives in Oklahoma From 1991 to 2015. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2019;25 Suppl 5, Tribal Epidemiology Centers: Advancing Public Health in Indian Country for Over 20 Years(Suppl 5 TRIBAL EPIDEMIOLOGY CENTERS ADVANCING PUBLIC HEALTH IN INDIAN COUNTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS):S36-S43. doi:10.1097/PHH.0000000000001019

Last updated: April 6, 2026

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