The older you get, the more you will value life because you have less of it. If you want to live longer, you should aim to grow richer and live in a more hospitable place. As you will see in this article, the correlation with life expectancy, wealth, and location is strong.
In 2023, life expectancy at birth in the US is 76.4 years. In further detail, it’s 73.5 years for males and 79.3 years for females. The Blue Zones have proven that humans can thrive into their 100s (centenarians) in the right conditions. However, centenarians are very rare at only 0.027% of the world population (89,739 centenarians in a global population of 336,997,624).
Sadly, life expectancy at birth fell in 2021 to its lowest level since 1996 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This almost one-year decline in life expectancy in 2021 followed a 1.8-year life expectancy decline from 2019 to 2020.
The CDC attributes roughly half of the life expectancy decline to COVID-19. Because of the virus, roughly 20 years of life expectancy progress was wiped out.
Other reasons for the dramatic life expectancy declines include: Unintentional injuries (16%), which include drug overdoses, heart disease (4.1%), chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (3%), and suicide (2.1%).
Given the pandemic is over, we can expect life expectancy to stabilize or even rebound back to an upward trend. However, as someone who values life too much to leave living to chance, let’s explore direct solutions to improving our own life expectancy.
Straightforward Ways To Increase Life Expectancy
Based on the above causes for shorter life expectancies, if we want to live longer, we should do the following:
- Improve our mental health to reduce our chances of suicide
- Surround yourself with positive friends and family to combat loneliness
- Focus on your ikigai and have purpose in your daily life
- Eat healthier and consume animal proteins in moderation
- Exercise often to reduce our risk of heart disease
- Retain muscle and grip strength to reduce risks of falls and injuries
- Drink less alcohol to reduce our risk of liver disease
- Stop taking illegal drugs and consume legal drugs in moderation
- Drive less, drive more carefully, participate in lower-risk activities
Pretty straightforward right? The other clear solution to increasing life expectancy is to get richer. You can do so by signing up for my weekly newsletter and reading my book on building more wealth.
Now let’s look at life expectancy differentials by state. The differences are shocking.
Improve Your Life Expectancy By Living In The Right State
According to this life expectancy chart by the Global Health Data Exchange and Jeremy Ney, it’s clear some residents in certain states live longer.
We’re talking about a 20-year life expectancy gap between states with the shortest life expectancies and states with the longest life expectancies! Therefore, if you want to increase your life expectancy, consider relocating to states with the highest average age at death.
Sure, it may be more expensive to live in California than Mississippi, but how much is life worth to you?
Where you want to live is up to you. This is not an article about where you should live. Instead, this is an article about where you might want to live to extend your life based on data. Every state has its pros and cons.
It may be too difficult to relocate during your working years, unless you’re able to work remotely. However, relocating to a high-life-expectancy state for retirement may be more feasible. When you’re older, you’ll likely be more motivated to extend your life as well.
States With The Highest Life Expectancies
To live longer, you may want to live in Hawaii, California, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, Southern Florida, and the Northeastern States. Residents in Utah, Iowa, and Wisconsin also have relatively long life expectancies.
My favorite state is Hawaii. As soon as I step off the plane at Honolulu International Airport, my stress level drops by another three points out of ten. There’s something magical about the scent of plumeria flowers and feeling the sea breeze that makes living in Hawaii so wonderful.
As a resident of San Francisco, California since 2001, I’m happy living here as well. San Francisco is one of the cheapest international cities in the world with a torrent of fortune-making opportunities.
Although every big city has its problems, I enjoy the nature, scenic beauty, diversity, activities, and cuisine of San Francisco. Having two young children has also increased my appreciation of living in San Francisco given we don’t have to fly anywhere to have a great vacation.
States With The Lowest Life Expectancies
If you are OK with living a potentially shorter life, you may want to live in Alaska, Nevada, Northern Arizona, New Mexico, Northern and Eastern Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Northern Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, and West Virginia. One of the greatest benefits of living in any these states is lower cost of living.
My favorite states in this group are Alaska and Louisiana. Hiking and fishing in Alaska are amazing experiences. I highly recommend visiting Mt. Denali National Park for the wildlife. I’ll never forget taking a boat plane to some remote lake and camping with nobody around for hundreds of miles.
I also love Louisiana because of New Orleans. The food is incredible, the culture is wonderful, and so are the people. I’m sure if I lived in New Orleans, I’d gain at least ten pounds and still be happy. Sugar-coated beignets filled with jam or chocolate for the win!
If you live in a state with a low life expectancy, at least get an affordable term life insurance policy to protect your family. It’s the responsible thing to do if you have dependents.
Why Are Life Expectancies So Different By State?
According to Robert H. Shmerling of Harvard Medical School, “Americans with the shortest life expectancies tend to have the most poverty, face the most food insecurity, and have less or no access to healthcare.
Additionally, groups with lower life expectancy tend to have higher-risk jobs that can’t be performed virtually, live in more crowded settings, and have less access to vaccination, which increases the risk of becoming sick with or dying of COVID-19.”
Whatever your views on vaccinations are, there does clearly seem to be a correlation with higher vaccination rates and longer life expectancies.
Policy decisions at the state level matter.
Social Determinants Of Health
Where you live may affect what the CDC calls “the social determinants of health” — “economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, racism, climate change and political systems.”
For example, here in San Francisco, almost nobody smokes. Therefore, there is greater pressure on you to not smoke as well. In Los Angeles, there are super-fit people everywhere given the constant sunshine and entertainment scene. As a result, you feel more motivated to stay in shape.
Given this is a personal finance site, what I’m most interested in is the correlation between wealth and life expectancy. I want to know whether it’s worth grinding hard to make and save as much money as possible. Or whether the intense pursuit of money will ultimately lead to a poorer lifestyle.
I believe in the simple hypothesis that the wealthier you are, the longer your life expectancy due to greater education and better medical services. Let’s take a look at income and wealth by state and compare the data to life expectancies by state.
Average Household Income By State
Below is a map of the average household income by state. As you can see below, there is a high correlation between longer life expectancies and higher average household income. The average household income ranges from $60,923 to $127,264 as of 2019.
Source: Financial Samurai
