Mortality – Life Expectancy (IHME)
This indicator reports the average life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy measures the average number of years from birth a person can expect to live, according to the current mortality experience (age-specific death rates) of the population. Life expectancy takes into account the number of deaths in a given time period and the average number of people at risk of dying during that period, allowing us to compare data across counties with different population sizes.
Note: Data are suppressed for counties with fewer than 20 total deaths during the study period.
Source
Source Description
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent population health research center at UW Medicine, part of the University of Washington, that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME makes this information freely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions about how to allocate resources to best improve population health.
Methodology
This indicator displays average life expectancy by county. Data are estimates produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) using small area estimation methods. The IHME dataset provides estimates for life expectancy at birth and mortality risk for under-5 and 20-year age groups at the county level for each state, the District of Columbia, and the United States and by racial/ethnic group, for each year between 2000-2019, as well as the changes in life expectancy and mortality risk for each location during this period. Data is retrieved from United States Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy by County, Race, and Ethnicity 2000-2019. Results of the study were published in the Lancet in June 2022 in Life expectancy by county, race, and ethnicity in the USA, 2000–19: a systematic analysis of health disparities.
Data Breakouts Available
- Life Expectancy by Sex
- Life Expectancy by Time Period, 2000 through 2019
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