The CDC published its life expectancy report Thursday.
Researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics looked at residents’ life expectancies in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 2019.
People living in the South had the lowest life expectancies.
The average life expectancy in the state of Mississippi was 74.4 years, significantly below the national average of 78.8 years.
According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mississippi also had the greatest share of people living below the poverty line that same year.
The states of West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina and Ohio also had life expectancies below the national average.
People in Hawaii are living the longest – their life expectancy is 80.9 years.
Women there lived even longer – 83.9 years.
Hawaii had a poverty rate of 9% in 2019.
Other states with high life expectancies included California, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington state, Colorado and Vermont.
Life expectancy went up for women in all states, according to the CDC report.
The report did not mention how the COVID-19 pandemic affected life expectancies.
It also did not explain why some states have lower life expectancies than others.
