Life Expectancy by State Statistics in US 2026 | Key Facts

Life Expectancy by State in America 2026

Ask most Americans where they expect to die — and at what age — and the honest answer has a lot to do with their ZIP code. That’s not hyperbole; it’s what the data confirms. According to the most recent state-level mortality report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) on December 4, 2025 — the U.S. State Life Tables, 2022 — life expectancy at birth across America’s 50 states and the District of Columbia ranges from a high of 80.0 years in Hawaii to a devastating low of 72.2 years in West Virginia. That 7.8-year gap between the best and worst-performing states represents not just a statistical curiosity but a profound public health inequality: a child born in West Virginia today will, on average, live nearly eight fewer years than a child born in Hawaii — within the borders of the same country, under the same federal government, and in the same decade. At the national level, the most recent final data from NCHS Data Brief No. 548, published January 29, 2026, confirms that the overall US life expectancy reached a record 79.0 years in 2024, driven by a 3.8% drop in the age-adjusted death rate and 18,298 fewer total deaths than in 2023.

But the national average — impressive as it is — tells almost none of the most important stories about American longevity. The state-level data published in December 2025 reveals that the top 10 highest life expectancy states are overwhelmingly in the Northeast and West, while the bottom 10 are clustered almost entirely in the South and Appalachia. Mississippi men average just 69.5 years — the lowest male life expectancy of any state — while Massachusetts men average 77.4 years, a gap of 7.9 years that is larger than the difference between the United States and many developing nations. Women face the same geographic divide: West Virginia women at 75.1 years live 7.9 fewer years than Hawaii women at 83.0 years. The gender gap in life expectancy by state ranges from a low of 3.6 years in Utah to a high of 6.9 years in New Mexico, showing that even within the male-female longevity divide, geography plays a powerful moderating role. Understanding life expectancy by state in the US in 2026 is, at its core, understanding why America is not one nation when it comes to how long its people get to live.

Interesting Facts About Life Expectancy by State in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A and Table B; CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 548, “Mortality in the United States, 2024,” January 29, 2026; National Vital Statistics System

Two numbers in the facts table above stand out as particularly consequential for understanding geographic health inequality in the United States. The 7.9-year gap in male life expectancy between Massachusetts at 77.4 years and Mississippi at 69.5 years is almost incomprehensible in a single wealthy nation. For context, that gap is roughly equivalent to the difference in male life expectancy between the United States and several middle-income countries. The Mississippi male life expectancy of 69.5 years is below the national average by more than five years and reflects a brutal clustering of risk factors: the state has among the highest obesity rates, highest poverty rates, worst access to primary care, and some of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the entire country. Meanwhile, the fact that 48 states and D.C. all improved their life expectancy from 2021 to 2022 is a genuinely encouraging finding — reflecting broad-based post-pandemic recovery from the COVID-19 mortality crisis that had driven life expectancy to multi-decade lows in 2020 and 2021.

The gender gap data by state also contains important information about what drives male mortality across different contexts. In Utah, the gap is just 3.6 years — the narrowest in the nation — reflecting Utah’s unique demographic profile: high rates of religious community participation, very low rates of tobacco and alcohol use, strong social cohesion, and relatively high healthcare access. In New Mexico, the gap stretches to 6.9 years — nearly double Utah’s — driven primarily by sharply elevated male mortality from unintentional injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and homicide in that state. These state-level patterns make clear that the male-female longevity gap is not fixed biology: it is shaped powerfully by the social, economic, and policy environment in which men live.

Top 10 States With Highest Life Expectancy in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A: “Life expectancy at birth, rank, and standard error, by sex: Each state, District of Columbia, and United States, 2022”; National Vital Statistics System

The top 10 states for life expectancy are a geographically coherent cluster: six are Northeastern states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire), three are Western (Hawaii, California, Utah), and one is from the Midwest (Minnesota). This pattern has been consistent across years of CDC state life table data and reflects structural advantages shared by these states: higher median incomes, greater access to healthcare including primary and preventive care, lower rates of tobacco use, lower obesity rates, and — in Hawaii and California particularly — demographic compositions that include large proportions of Asian and Hispanic populations, both of which carry favorable mortality profiles. Hawaii’s 80.0-year total life expectancy is the highest of any US state and is driven by a combination of these factors plus a physically active lifestyle culture and a notably strong social fabric. Massachusetts leads all states for male life expectancy specifically at 77.4 years, reflecting the state’s exceptional concentration of high-quality medical institutions, high per-capita income, and relatively low rates of the risk behaviors — smoking, heavy alcohol use, opioid misuse — that most often kill men prematurely.

What is particularly striking about the top 10 is how clustered the female figures are. Every top-10 state records female life expectancy of 80.9 years or above, with Hawaii leading at 83.0 years and Utah at the bottom of the top 10 with 80.9 years. Women in all of these states live well above the national female average of 80.2 years. For males, the range within the top 10 is also tight: from 77.4 years in Massachusetts down to 76.5 years in New Hampshire — a span of less than one year across the entire top tier. This clustering near the top tells us that the determinants of high life expectancy at the state level are well-understood and shared across these high-performing states: economic security, healthcare access, education, and low prevalence of the major behavioral risk factors that cut lives short. What differs at the bottom is the severity and concentration of the opposing forces.

Bottom 10 States With Lowest Life Expectancy in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A; National Vital Statistics System. Note: Rankings are out of 50 states + DC = 51 total jurisdictions.

The bottom 10 is as geographically coherent as the top 10 — but in the opposite direction. Nine of the bottom 10 states are in the South, with New Mexico as the sole outlier. West Virginia and Mississippi share the distinction of being the two lowest-ranked states: both have total life expectancies of 72.2 and 72.6 years respectively, and both share a nearly identical male life expectancy of 69.5 years. The factors driving this are well-documented: West Virginia faces extraordinary opioid and drug overdose mortality, among the highest poverty rates in the nation, limited access to primary care physicians, very high rates of tobacco use, and some of the country’s most severe obesity and diabetes burdens. Mississippi adds high homicide rates and some of the worst cardiovascular disease outcomes in the nation. Together, the bottom 10 states represent a persistent regional health crisis that has resisted improvement for decades despite various federal and state interventions.

What the CDC’s December 2025 state life tables report also noted is that the states with the greatest life expectancy increases from 2021 to 2022 were disproportionately the lowest-ranked Southern states — South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas all recorded among the largest single-year gains. This is partly encouraging and partly context-dependent: these states improved more sharply because COVID-19 had hit them harder in 2020 and 2021, so the post-pandemic rebound was steeper. Their absolute position at the bottom of national rankings, however, has not fundamentally changed. West Virginia at 72.2 years sits 7.6 years below New Jersey at 79.6 years — and the policy distance between those two states in terms of healthcare coverage, poverty rates, and public health infrastructure is as wide as the mortality gap itself.

Life Expectancy by State for Males in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A, Male column rankings; National Vital Statistics System

The male life expectancy rankings by state reveal a 7.9-year chasm between the best and worst performing states — from Massachusetts at 77.4 years to Mississippi and West Virginia, both at 69.5 years. Notably, Utah ranks 2nd nationally for male life expectancy at 77.3 years despite ranking only 9th overall — reflecting the particularly strong male survival outcomes in a state with low tobacco use, low alcohol consumption, and strong community social structures. Massachusetts leads overall due to its exceptional healthcare infrastructure, high educational attainment, and favorable economic conditions. The gap between the top-ranked Massachusetts at 77.4 years and the national male average of 74.8 years is 2.6 years — meaning Massachusetts men live nearly three years longer than the average American man. The gap between the worst-ranked Mississippi at 69.5 years and the national average is 5.3 years below, meaning Mississippi men die more than five years younger than the average American man.

The concentration of the worst male life expectancy states in the Deep South and Appalachia mirrors patterns seen in poverty, uninsured rates, physical inactivity, and tobacco use — all among the strongest predictors of premature male mortality. Louisiana at 70.6 years and Alabama at 70.8 years both rank in the bottom five for male life expectancy and both face high rates of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes — conditions that disproportionately kill men in middle age. The data also reflects the impact of drug overdose deaths: West Virginia, with the worst overall opioid death rate in the nation, shares the bottom male ranking at 69.5 years despite having different underlying demographic characteristics from Mississippi. For American men, where they live may ultimately matter more than almost any individual health decision they make.

Life Expectancy by State for Females in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A, Female column rankings; National Vital Statistics System

For American women, the state-level life expectancy gap is 7.9 years — from Hawaii’s 83.0 years at the top down to West Virginia’s 75.1 years at the bottom. Hawaii leads for women just as it does for the total population, its 83.0-year female life expectancy reflecting the same combination of healthy demographics, active lifestyle culture, strong social networks, and lower-than-average rates of the chronic diseases that cut women’s lives short. Massachusetts at 82.2 years, New York, California, and Connecticut all clustered at 82.1 years make up the top five — a group of high-income, high-education states with strong healthcare infrastructure and relatively low rates of tobacco use and obesity. The national female average of 80.2 years means that the top 8 states all exceed that figure by 1.4 years or more, while the bottom states fall dramatically short.

West Virginia women at 75.1 years and Mississippi women at 75.7 years represent the two most extreme cases of geographic female health disadvantage in the nation. Both states have among the highest rates of smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and poverty among women in the country, and both face severe shortages of obstetric and gynecological care — with many counties having no OB-GYN providers at all. West Virginia in particular has been deeply affected by the opioid epidemic, which increasingly affects women as well as men: drug overdose death rates among women have risen faster than for men in recent years, eating into what was historically a more substantial female longevity advantage in that state. The 7.9-year gap between Hawaii and West Virginia women underscores that American women do not all share equally in the longevity advantage that their sex confers nationally.

Life Expectancy at Age 65 by State in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table B: “Life expectancy at age 65, rank, and standard error, by sex: Each state, District of Columbia, and United States, 2022”; National Vital Statistics System

The life expectancy at age 65 data reveals a dimension of state-level health inequality that at-birth figures alone cannot capture. Hawaii leads all states at age 65 with 20.5 additional years — meaning a 65-year-old in Hawaii will live, on average, to age 85.5. West Virginia trails at just 16.6 additional years at age 65, projecting only to age 81.6 — a gap of 3.9 years between the best and worst states even among those who survive to 65. For males specifically, Mississippi records the lowest life expectancy at age 65 at just 15.3 additional years, compared to Hawaii males at 18.8 years — a gap of 3.5 years even after accounting for the selective survival effect that reaching 65 represents. West Virginia women at age 65 can expect only 17.7 more years, compared to Hawaii women at 22.1 more years — a 4.4-year gap among women aged 65 and above.

What the age-65 data tells us that the at-birth data does not is how much state-level health inequality persists into old age. It would be tempting to assume that people who survive to 65 have, in effect, cleared many of the risks that drive state-level differences at birth — overdose, homicide, accidents. But the persistence of a 3.9-year gap at age 65 between Hawaii and West Virginia shows that the health environments of low-performing states continue to affect survival even among the elderly. This reflects the long-term consequences of untreated or poorly managed chronic disease — cardiovascular disease, diabetes, COPD — that are more prevalent and less well-managed in lower-ranked states. The CDC’s NVSR 74-12 report specifically noted that “states with the lowest life expectancies at age 65 are mostly concentrated in the South,” directly mirroring the same geographic patterns seen at birth.

Gender Gap in Life Expectancy by State in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A and Figure 2 (“Difference between male and female life expectancy at birth: Each state, District of Columbia, and United States, 2022”); National Vital Statistics System

The gender gap in life expectancy across US states ranges from 3.6 years in Utah to 6.9 years in New Mexico — a nearly twofold difference that reflects profoundly different mortality environments for men across different states. Utah’s 3.6-year gap is the product of unusually favorable male mortality conditions: the state has among the lowest smoking rates in the nation, very low alcohol use, a strong religious and community social fabric that research consistently links to male longevity, and low rates of the risk-taking behaviors that most commonly kill men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. The result is that Utah men at 77.3 years live nearly as long as women in many lower-ranked states. At the other extreme, New Mexico’s 6.9-year gap — the widest in the nation — is driven almost entirely by severely elevated male mortality from unintentional injuries, motor vehicle crashes, homicide, and alcohol-related deaths, all of which kill men at particularly high rates in that state.

The CDC’s December 2025 state life tables report confirmed what the data has long suggested: “with a few exceptions, the states with the largest differences by sex are those with lower life expectancy at birth, while the smallest sex differences are found mostly among states with higher life expectancy.” This pattern makes epidemiological sense. The factors that drive down overall life expectancy in a state — poverty, substance misuse, violence, poor healthcare access — tend to hit men harder than women, because men are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, more likely to die from overdose and violence, and less likely to seek medical care until a crisis occurs. Improving male life expectancy in the worst-performing states is therefore not just a men’s health issue; it is the single most powerful lever for reducing overall state-level health inequality in America.

Life Expectancy by Region in the US 2026

Source: National Vital Statistics Reports Vol. 74, No. 12, “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” Arias, Xu, Tejada-Vera, Bastian, December 4, 2025, CDC/NCHS, Table A; regional groupings based on US Census Bureau geographic divisions; National Vital Statistics System

The regional picture of life expectancy in the United States confirms a pattern that has been consistent across many years of CDC state life table data: the Northeast and Pacific West produce the longest-lived Americans, while the South — particularly the Deep South and Appalachia — produces the shortest. The CDC’s December 2025 NVSR explicitly noted that “states with the highest life expectancy at birth were predominantly Western and Northeastern,” while “states with the lowest life expectancy at birth were mostly Southern states.” Within the South, Florida stands as a notable outlier: at 77.9 years total, it ranks 19th nationally — far above fellow Southern states — driven by its large retiree population, favorable demographics, and relatively high healthcare utilization among elderly Floridians. Texas at 77.1 years also outperforms most of the Southern cluster, reflecting the economic vitality of major metropolitan areas including Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

The Midwest presents its own internal divide. The Upper Midwest — Minnesota at 79.3 years, Wisconsin at 78.1 years, Iowa at 77.9 years, and North Dakota at 77.9 years — consistently ranks in the top half nationally, powered by strong agricultural economies, lower rates of tobacco use, and tight-knit community social structures. But the Lower Midwest tells a different story: Ohio at 75.6 years ranks 39th nationally, Indiana at 75.4 years ranks 40th, and Missouri at 75.2 years ranks 41st — all performing significantly worse than the national average and approaching the life expectancy levels of Deep South states. Ohio and Indiana in particular have been severely affected by the opioid epidemic, which has driven up overdose death rates well above national averages and dragged down life expectancy figures that were once considerably higher in those states.

Disclaimer: The data reports published on The Global Files are sourced from publicly available materials considered reliable. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no guarantees are provided regarding completeness or reliability. The Global Files is not liable for any errors, omissions, or damages resulting from the use of these reports.