{"id":594868,"date":"2026-05-02T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=594868"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:55:00","slug":"hawaii-has-americas-highest-life-expectancy-west-virginia-the-lowest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=594868","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii Has America’s Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hawaii Has America’s Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Life expectancy varies widely across the U.S., with clear regional patterns emerging in the latest data.<\/strong><\/p>\n

States in the Northeast and on the West Coast tend to have higher life expectancies, while many in the South and Appalachia rank lower.<\/p>\n

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, <\/a>shows these differences using data from the\u00a0CDC\u2019s National Center for Health Statistics<\/a>, based on 2022 life tables published in December 2025, the latest publicly available state-level figures as of March 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The CDC\u2019s report uses period life tables, which estimate how long a hypothetical group would live if it experienced the death rates observed in 2022 at every age. In other words, the measure captures current mortality conditions in each state, not a forecast for babies born there today.<\/em><\/p>\n

Where Americans Live the Longest, and the Shortest<\/h2>\n

Among the 50 states and D.C., Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth in 2022 at 80.0 years. Massachusetts followed at 79.8, with New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut close behind.<\/p>\n

The data table below shows the life expectancy of every U.S. state and D.C.:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/th>\nState<\/th>\nLife Expectancy (Years)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>\nHawaii<\/td>\n80.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nMassachusetts<\/td>\n79.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nNew Jersey<\/td>\n79.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nNew York<\/td>\n79.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nConnecticut<\/td>\n79.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nCalifornia<\/td>\n79.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nMinnesota<\/td>\n79.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nRhode Island<\/td>\n79.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nUtah<\/td>\n79.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nNew Hampshire<\/td>\n78.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nColorado<\/td>\n78.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nIdaho<\/td>\n78.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nWashington<\/td>\n78.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nNebraska<\/td>\n78.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nVermont<\/td>\n78.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\nWisconsin<\/td>\n78.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/td>\nNorth Dakota<\/td>\n77.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/td>\nIowa<\/td>\n77.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/td>\nFlorida<\/td>\n77.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/td>\nMaryland<\/td>\n77.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21<\/td>\nOregon<\/td>\n77.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
22<\/td>\nIllinois<\/td>\n77.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
23<\/td>\nVirginia<\/td>\n77.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
24<\/td>\nPennsylvania<\/td>\n77.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
25<\/td>\nSouth Dakota<\/td>\n77.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
26<\/td>\nMontana<\/td>\n77.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
27<\/td>\nTexas<\/td>\n77.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
28<\/td>\nWyoming<\/td>\n76.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
29<\/td>\nMichigan<\/td>\n76.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
30<\/td>\nArizona<\/td>\n76.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31<\/td>\nMaine<\/td>\n76.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
32<\/td>\nDistrict of Columbia<\/td>\n76.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33<\/td>\nDelaware<\/td>\n76.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
34<\/td>\nKansas<\/td>\n76.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
35<\/td>\nNevada<\/td>\n76.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
36<\/td>\nGeorgia<\/td>\n75.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
37<\/td>\nNorth Carolina<\/td>\n75.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
38<\/td>\nAlaska<\/td>\n75.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
39<\/td>\nOhio<\/td>\n75.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
40<\/td>\nIndiana<\/td>\n75.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
41<\/td>\nMissouri<\/td>\n75.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
42<\/td>\nSouth Carolina<\/td>\n75.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
43<\/td>\nNew Mexico<\/td>\n74.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
44<\/td>\nArkansas<\/td>\n73.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
45<\/td>\nOklahoma<\/td>\n73.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
46<\/td>\nTennessee<\/td>\n73.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
47<\/td>\nAlabama<\/td>\n73.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
48<\/td>\nLouisiana<\/td>\n73.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
49<\/td>\nKentucky<\/td>\n73.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
50<\/td>\nMississippi<\/td>\n72.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
51<\/td>\nWest Virginia<\/td>\n72.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

On the other end of the ranking, West Virginia came in last at 72.2 years, behind Mississippi at 72.6 and Kentucky at 73.6.<\/p>\n

The broad pattern is regional: the Northeast and West Coast have higher life expectancies, while many Southern and Appalachian states cluster at the bottom.<\/p>\n

Why the National Average Misses the State Divide<\/h2>\n

While the national average is 77.5 years, only 21 states cleared that mark. Illinois and Virginia matched it exactly, and the remaining 28 states came in below it.<\/p>\n

The CDC also found that females had higher life expectancy than males in every state and D.C., but the size of that\u00a0gender gap<\/a>\u00a0varied widely. States on the lower end of life expectancy tended to have larger divides, while higher-ranked states had smaller gaps.<\/p>\n

For example, New Mexico (ninth-lowest life expectancy at 74.5) recorded the largest female-male gap at 6.9 years, while Utah (ninth-highest at 79 years) had the smallest at 3.6 years.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed today\u2019s post, check out\u00a0Why Living Longer Isn\u2019t Always Living Healthier<\/a>\u00a0on Voronoi.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 05\/01\/2026 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaii Has America’s Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest Life expectancy varies widely across the U.S., with clear regional patterns emerging in the latest data. States in the Northeast and on the West Coast tend to have higher life expectancies, while many in the South and Appalachia rank lower. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s… Continue reading Hawaii Has America’s Highest Life Expectancy, West Virginia The Lowest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=594868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/594859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}