" there are eight separate Americas instead of one."

[donsu]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AMERICAN_LONGEVITY?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=home.htm


Where You Live Linked to Life Expectancy


Where you live, combined with race and income, plays a huge role in the nation's health disparities, differences so stark that a report issued Monday contends it's as if there are eight separate Americas instead of one.

Asian-American women living in Bergen County, N.J., lead the nation in longevity, typically reaching their 91st birthdays. Worst off are American Indian men in swaths of South Dakota, who die around age 58 - three decades sooner.

Millions of the worst-off Americans have life expectancies typical of developing countries, concluded Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Murray analyzed mortality data between 1982 and 2001 by county, race, gender and income. He found some distinct groupings that he named the "eight Americas:"

-Asian-Americans, average per capita income of $21,566, have a life expectancy of 84.9 years.

-Northland low-income rural whites, $17,758, 79 years.

-Middle America (mostly white), $24,640, 77.9 years.

-Low income whites in Appalachia, Mississippi Valley, $16,390, 75 years.

-Western American Indians, $10,029, 72.7 years.

-Black Middle America, $15,412, 72.9 years.

-Southern low-income rural blacks, $10,463, 71.2 years.

-High-risk urban blacks, $14,800, 71.1 years.

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(Counties with highest and lowest - they list 25 counties in each list)

Highest life expectancy

County Life Expectancy

Clear Creek, Colo. 81.3

-snip-

Lowest life expectancy

Washabaugh, S.D. 66.6

- more stats at this snip-
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the greatest nation on earth, my foot.