As the MAHA craze sweeps the nation, Americans are discovering a renewed excitement for healthy living. But could something as simple as where you live affect your lifespan? According to a new Yale School of Public Health study, not every state in the Union is equal when it comes to life expectancy.
How Where You Live May Affect Your Lifespan
Researchers looked at 179 million death records from 1969 to 2020 and compared deaths from year to year, examining how social conditions might influence one’s health over time. The study found that, while those who had died more recently seemed to live longer pretty much everywhere, residents of the Northeast and the West Coast had a greater increase in lifespan than those from the South. Theodore R. Holford, lead author of the study, said: “For females born in some Southern states, life expectancy increased by less than three years from 1900 to 2000.” He added, “That’s a staggering contrast when you consider that in states like New York and California, life expectancy rose by more than 20 years over the same period.”
Washington, DC, had the smallest lifespan increase in the 1900 birth group; however, by 2000, females had gained 30 years, and males 38 years. The study highlighted Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi as having the least improvement, citing “socioeconomic disadvantages, limited access to health care, and weaker public health initiatives.”
Jamie Tam, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Yale School of Public Health, explained: “These trends in mortality and life expectancy reflect not only each state’s policy environment but also their underlying demographics as well.” She continued, “It’s not surprising that states with fewer improvements to life expectancy also have higher rates of poverty, for example.”
A basic internet search shows different results from various sources, but most rank Hawaii as the healthiest state in the country. The Healthiest States Index of the USA 2024 by Ozmosi, a data and analytics company, shines a little more light on the issue. The results are based on numerous factors, including air pollution, cancer rates, obesity, smoking, depression, binge drinking, amount of sleep, and even the number of fruits and vegetables residents in each state eat daily.
Hawaii came in with the lowest rates of cancer (5.35%) and depression (14.86%), while Maine had the highest cancer rate (6.54%), and West Virginia had the highest rate of depression (38.56%). Obesity, which is the second leading preventable cause of death, was the lowest in North Dakota (5.81%) and the highest in West Virginia (40.60%). When it came to tobacco and alcohol use, Utah had the lowest number of smokers and binge drinkers, 11.42% and 11.13%, respectively. Kentucky had the highest number of smokers, 26.09%, and Wisconsin had the highest number of binge drinkers, 25.06%.
“The disparities we see today are the result of decades of cumulative effects — on smoking rates, health care access, environmental exposures, and public health investments,” Holford said.
States Overall Ranking
“Where you are born shouldn’t determine how long you live. But in America, it still does,” Holford explained. That’s simplifying the issue, of course. Quality of life also plays an important role, which can mean anything from achieving a high-paying job to living in an area where you can enjoy outdoor natural life or where your politics align with the local government. While Hawaii was listed as the number one healthiest state, it didn’t even make the top ten of best US states to live in, according to US News & World Report's 2025 rankings. Utah is number one on that list.
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