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•••Getty Images Credit: Ronnie Kaufman/Larry Hirshowitz
By Rosemary Carlson
Updated March 08, 2019
Life expectancy by race in the United States is stated from the year of birth. As an example, if you were born in the year 2000 and the life expectancy was 70 years for your gender and race, you would be expected to live, on average, to the year 2070.
Based on average life expectancy, the United States ranked 31st in the world in 2015 behind a number of countries usually considered less well-developed. The top five countries in terms of life expectancy in 2015 were Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, and Spain. Since then, Spain has taken over the top spot.
Race-Based Life Expectancy
Life expectancies based on race are from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) data which is available up until 2014. It happens that 2014 is the year in which the highest life expectancy occurred and it has been declining slightly since that time. The life expectancy for the U.S. for all races was 78.9 years. Based on race, life expectancies in 2014 were as follows:
Native Americans: 75.06 years
African Americans: 75.54 years
White Americans: 79.12 years
Hispanic Americans: 82.89 years
Asian Americans: 86.67 years
There is a racial gap in life expectancy in 2014 with Asian Americans living over 11 years as long as Native Americans and African Americans. Hispanic Americans are close to the top with Asian-Americans and White Americans are somewhere in the center. The racial gap seems to follow the anecdotal data from 2014 forward to the current time although there is evidence it is narrowing in the present day.
Determinants of Racial Life Expectancy
A number of sources seem to agree on the determinants of life expectancy that impact the racial gap:
Economic Circumstances
Medical and Behavioral Issues
Geographic and Environmental Conditions
Economic Circumstances
A 2012 study showed that 80% of the racial life expectancy gap between black and white men could be attributed to socioeconomic factors. About 70% of the gap between black and white women can be attributed to socioeconomic factors. Income can be attributed to 52% of the difference for men and 59% for women. Other socioeconomic factors that are involved are education, occupation, unemployment, marital status, and home ownership.
All of these factors, particularly income, can cause high levels of stress which can lead to lower life expectancy.
Many Asian-Americans have higher paying jobs in industry or academia which will raise their life expectancy. Native Americans may experience just the opposite with regard to income levels and this will lower their life expectancy.
Medical and Behavioral Issues
"In 1990, the life expectancy difference between black and white men was seven years. In 2014, it had dropped to a little over three years. Even as the life expectancy gap between black and white Americans narrowed, the life expectancy started to drop in the general population after a high in 2014. In 2017, both the suicide rate and the rate of drug overdoses had climbed, primarily for white Americans. Suicide was more prevalent among white Americans in rural areas where wages have been stagnant and jobs scarce for years now.
Drug overdoses were most often found in more urban areas. Sociologists call this dying of despair. Heart disease and cancer remain the top two causes of death.
Asian-Americans again win the life expectancy lottery with regard to health and medical issues, largely due to their diet, which includes high levels of fish consumption instead of red meat. Both White and Black Americans tend to eat more red meat and less fish. Hispanic Americans eat more legumes as opposed to red meat."
White (non-Hispanic) Americans when not offing themselves directly, are suffering higher numbers of mortal diseases brought on by various conditions including diet. Relating to the former they also are suffering "death by despair" in very high numbers.
Whites of all classes are committing suicide in numbers. Fashion designers, financiers, bankers, actors, and so forth.
Latino-Hispanic is a vast and wide demographic which includes but is not limited to Mexicans, Salvadorans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and basically anyone else with Latin American background that does not put themselves down as "white-Hispanic" and or are considered such for demographic purposes.
This group thus ranges on a vast socio-economic scale which obviously is going to affect their life expectancy.
Yes, it is a construct, but never the less since people and governments need to pigeon hole things under something......
Same thing with Judaism; being Jewish is not a race, but many lump them all together even though there are vast differences in terms of demographics.
Gays are another; that group is treated as a "race", even though the only thing that binds the various races, creeds, colors, and whatever together is the tenuous connection of primary sexual attraction. Otherwise gays behave less like a cohesive group than fractions of warring tribes.
•••Getty Images Credit: Ronnie Kaufman/Larry Hirshowitz
By Rosemary Carlson
Updated March 08, 2019
Life expectancy by race in the United States is stated from the year of birth. As an example, if you were born in the year 2000 and the life expectancy was 70 years for your gender and race, you would be expected to live, on average, to the year 2070.
Based on average life expectancy, the United States ranked 31st in the world in 2015 behind a number of countries usually considered less well-developed. The top five countries in terms of life expectancy in 2015 were Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, and Spain. Since then, Spain has taken over the top spot.
Race-Based Life Expectancy
Life expectancies based on race are from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) data which is available up until 2014. It happens that 2014 is the year in which the highest life expectancy occurred and it has been declining slightly since that time. The life expectancy for the U.S. for all races was 78.9 years. Based on race, life expectancies in 2014 were as follows:
Native Americans: 75.06 years
African Americans: 75.54 years
White Americans: 79.12 years
Hispanic Americans: 82.89 years
Asian Americans: 86.67 years
There is a racial gap in life expectancy in 2014 with Asian Americans living over 11 years as long as Native Americans and African Americans. Hispanic Americans are close to the top with Asian-Americans and White Americans are somewhere in the center. The racial gap seems to follow the anecdotal data from 2014 forward to the current time although there is evidence it is narrowing in the present day.
Determinants of Racial Life Expectancy
A number of sources seem to agree on the determinants of life expectancy that impact the racial gap:
Economic Circumstances
Medical and Behavioral Issues
Geographic and Environmental Conditions
Economic Circumstances
A 2012 study showed that 80% of the racial life expectancy gap between black and white men could be attributed to socioeconomic factors. About 70% of the gap between black and white women can be attributed to socioeconomic factors. Income can be attributed to 52% of the difference for men and 59% for women. Other socioeconomic factors that are involved are education, occupation, unemployment, marital status, and home ownership.
All of these factors, particularly income, can cause high levels of stress which can lead to lower life expectancy.
Many Asian-Americans have higher paying jobs in industry or academia which will raise their life expectancy. Native Americans may experience just the opposite with regard to income levels and this will lower their life expectancy.
Medical and Behavioral Issues
"In 1990, the life expectancy difference between black and white men was seven years. In 2014, it had dropped to a little over three years. Even as the life expectancy gap between black and white Americans narrowed, the life expectancy started to drop in the general population after a high in 2014. In 2017, both the suicide rate and the rate of drug overdoses had climbed, primarily for white Americans. Suicide was more prevalent among white Americans in rural areas where wages have been stagnant and jobs scarce for years now.
Drug overdoses were most often found in more urban areas. Sociologists call this dying of despair. Heart disease and cancer remain the top two causes of death.
Asian-Americans again win the life expectancy lottery with regard to health and medical issues, largely due to their diet, which includes high levels of fish consumption instead of red meat. Both White and Black Americans tend to eat more red meat and less fish. Hispanic Americans eat more legumes as opposed to red meat."
White (non-Hispanic) Americans when not offing themselves directly, are suffering higher numbers of mortal diseases brought on by various conditions including diet. Relating to the former they also are suffering "death by despair" in very high numbers.
Whites of all classes are committing suicide in numbers. Fashion designers, financiers, bankers, actors, and so forth.
Latino-Hispanic is a vast and wide demographic which includes but is not limited to Mexicans, Salvadorans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and basically anyone else with Latin American background that does not put themselves down as "white-Hispanic" and or are considered such for demographic purposes.
This group thus ranges on a vast socio-economic scale which obviously is going to affect their life expectancy.
The suicide rate is miniscule. It has very little affect on the numbers.
Suicide rate among white males is 14 per 100000
so 99986 dont commit suicide
If the average age of those suicide victims was 40 and the average age of non suicide was 80, here's the affect
14 x 40=560
99986 x 80=7998880
add the two total ages and divide
799940/100000=79.994
80 vs 79.994
That you and others are not good at problem solving and simple math shouldn't be ignored.
Given your numbers and the opinions of the CDC and other experts....let me think about it.......hmmm....I think I will go for the others.....
As usual, this is not black/white as many "conservatives" like to measure things. For example, many opiate and other such deaths are effectively suicides.....or at least part of the same despair cycles lowering white mortality:
"Researchers have explained the decline, in part, by an increase in “deaths of despair”: suicides, alcoholism, and drug overdoses, particularly from opioid painkillers, are a rising problem for midlife white people."
Whether you shoot yourself in the head or inject fentanyl after drinking and taking benzos..the end result is the same.
Also, you fail to do the "math" for the effects. When a suicide or OD occurs in any nuclear family, the repercussions are vast. This causes stress and....well, shorter life spans in those around that person.
I am 100% sure that many people...when they see suicide (Robin Williams, for example...or maybe a Military Vet they knew) ask themselves "Well, if THAT person proved that life is not worth living....then maybe it is not"....
Now, maybe you will claim never to have thought this. But I can assure you it's a thing.
"Suicide can shatter the things you take for granted about yourself, your relationships, and your world," says Dr. Jordan. Many survivors need to conduct a psychological "autopsy," finding out as much as they can about the circumstances and factors leading to the suicide, in order to develop a narrative that makes sense to them. While doing this, they can benefit from the help of professionals or friends who are willing to listen — without attempting to supply answers — even if the same questions are asked again and again."
The facts are clear. Our white brethren are not doing well in many areas.
The bigger question is whether you fell we need to institute change and policy to help our fellows. Or, perhaps you want to "let 'em die" and blame it on lack of personal responsibility?
The term "Hispanic" refers to a cultural/linguistic group, but that group is also a "race" of people with biological characteristics. Yes, Hispanics have an average lifespan that is different from other groups due in part to differing genetics.
The term "Hispanic" refers to a cultural/linguistic group, but that group is also a "race" of people with biological characteristics. Yes, Hispanics have an average lifespan that is different from other groups due in part to differing genetics.
Hispanic is not a race, that is pretty clear.
Of course they have biological characteristics, as do all people, has nothing to do with it in fact not being a race.
WOW !!!! Are you being serious or just plain uninformed ?
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