Mar 9, 2012

Whites Outlive African-Americans by Up to Eight Years



A new life expectancy study conducted by UCLA researchers shows that in every state across the country white men and women are outliving Blacks. African-American die up to 8 years sooner than whites in certain states.


In Washington, D. C.,  Black men die up to 13.8 years sooner than Caucasian men and Black women die 8.6 years sooner than white women.


Life expectancy is defined as how long a person born today is expected to live. In America, a white male born today has a life expectancy of 74.8 years, while black males are expected to live to 67.7, creating a seven-year disparity. Meanwhile, white women can expect to live to 79.8, while their black counterparts have a life expectancy five years shorter, at 74.6 years, said the UCLA report.

The researchers studied national death-certificate data from 18 million non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic whites who died from 1997 and 2004.

Overall, the life-expectancy gap nationwide seems to be narrowing slightly, according to researchers, but it continues to vary widely by state. Florida has the 4th largest population of Black men, after Georgia, New York, and Texas. The state has the 3rd largest population of Black women behind Georgia and Texas. Florida 's longevity gap for women is the widest of any state at 7 years.

New Mexico has the smallest disparity  of 3.8 years men and 2.5 women. Experts say the racial gap only tells part of the story. If the data is stratified for other categories like income, education and whether a person lived in a rural or urban environment, rate between the races get more equal.  The racial gap would shrink, but wouldn't go away.

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