Community Corner

Hennepin County Men Catching Up to Women in Life Expectancy

The gap between men and women's life expectancy is shrinking, but it may not be good news for everyone. See how Hennepin County stacks up.

(Field Editor Caitlin Burgess wrote this article with contributions from Heather Martino.)

While Hennepin County women are living longer than men, life expectancy is increasing at a faster rate for men.

According to a new study from the University of Washington, which analyzed life expectancy rates for both men and women from 1985-2010, the life expectancy age for Hennepin County women increased 3.3 years from 79.3 to 82.6 in the 25 year period. The age for men, however, increased 5.3 years from 73.3 to 78.6 during the same period.

Hennepin County men also have a leg up on men in neighboring Ramsey County. According to the study, the life expectancy for Ramsey County men increased 4.9 years from 72.5 to 77.4 in the last 25 years. Life expectancy for both Hennepin and Ramsey county women was at 79.3 years in 1985 and was nearly the same in 2010, with Ramsey county women coming in with a 2.9 year increase.

As far as the rest of Minnesota goes, life expectancy numbers came in at 78.2 and 82.5 for men and women, respectively, in 2010. Nationally, those numbers were at 76.1 years for men and 80.8 years for women.

Use the map above to see how Hennepin County residents compare to the rest of Minnesota and the nation.

Across the country, people are also living longer than ever, the study found.

Throughout the United States, major improvements in life expectancy occurred in areas with large metropolises, like our county in Minnesota, and other states such as California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New York and Virginia. But the disparity is widening, with counties in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama seeing declines or stagnations in residents’ average age of death.

Researchers also found that women were living longer than men in every county in 2010. But men are catching up, having adding 5.3 years to their lives since 1985, while women only added 3.

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Even more worrisome is that 45 percent of women in counties nationwide are dying younger now or at the same rate than they were in 1985. So while men are living longer in counties across the country, women are remaining stagnant in much of the country.

“As a nation, what we can do about that is have a concerted effort to tackle the key preventable causes in those communities where there is no improvement,” said IHME Director Christopher Murray. He told Patch that in places where there is stagnation, local communities should “focus on changing things there that we know can make a difference, like diet, tobacco, high blood pressure and physical inactivity.”

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