Life expectancy by county and educational attainment in the USA, 2000–19: an observational analysis
Nationally, in all years there was a clear educational gradient in life expectancy at age 25 years where those with higher levels of education had higher life expectancy: individuals who had completed a college degree had higher life expectancy compared with those who had completed some college education (by 0·3 to 2·0 years over the study period), those who had completed some college had higher life expectancy than the high-school graduate population (by 4·1 to 4·9 years over the study period), and those who had graduated high school had higher life expectancy than those with less than a high-school education (by 3·4 to 5·1 years over the study period). From 2000 to 2019, life expectancy increased by 2·5 years (95% uncertainty interval 2·4 to 2·6) for the college graduate population, 0·7 years (0·6 to 0·8) for the population who had completed some college, and 0·3 years (0·3 to 0·4) for the high-school graduate population; there was no net change for those with less than a high-school education (0·0 years [−0·1 to 0·1]). In every educational attainment population, life expectancy increased by more from 2000 to 2010, with diminishing gains or even declines from 2010 to 2019. Life expectancy varied at the county level; eg, in 2019, the IQR for the population with less than a high-school education was 67·4 to 72·1 years, whereas for the college graduate population it was 82·3 to 84·6 years among counties with unmasked estimates. The college graduate population had higher life expectancy than those who had completed some college in 1937 (81·1%) of 2389 counties (47·1% statistically significant), which in turn had higher life expectancy than the high-school graduate population in 2726 (97·7%) of 2791 counties (87·0% statistically significant), which in turn had higher life expectancy than the population with less than a high-school education in 2356 (95·9%) of 2456 counties (91·6%). Over the study period, the gap in life expectancy between the college graduate population and those with less than a high-school education grew in 2594 (84·8%) of 3060 counties.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(24)00303-7/fulltext
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The Lancet Public Health
Life expectancy by county and educational attainment in the USA, 2000–19: an observational analysis
Educational disparities in life expectancy are large, widespread, and increasing,
both nationally and in most counties throughout the USA. Further research is needed
to determine how both more equitable access to higher education and efforts to mitigate
barriers…
January 24, 2025 296 2
