More and more Americans are moving from Blue states that lean Democratic to red that vote Republicanand one of the effects of this change is that they move to areas with low life expectancy.
Idaho, Montana and Florida, all red statesTHERE greatest population growth among US states between 2020 and 2022. Meanwhile, New York and Illinois, both blue states, and Louisiana, a red state, suffered the greatest population loss. California, another blue state, experienced significant recent population loss as well.
A major reason for this migration is high cost of living in places like New York and California, compared to the lower cost of living in red states like Georgia or Indiana.
I am a scholar who studied the intersection between politics, media and psychology. I think it’s important to note that another trend, however, is that people mostly migrate to areas with low life expectancy.
Understanding demographics
There is one huge difference in life expectancy for people living in certain states, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For example, people born in New York and California – two of richest states in the country, which mostly voted Democratic – there is a life expectancy of 77.7 and 79 years, respectively. But the people of Mississippi and Louisiana – two of poorest stateswho tend to vote Republican – live, on average, until they 71.9 and 73.1 years old.
People who live in Republican-leaning states probably have little money, worse health conditionshigher rates of gun-related death and low level of education than people living in Democratic states.
On average, people in red states have higher poverty rates than residents of blue states.
Poverty is an indicator of life expectancy in the US – the poorer a person is, the more likely they are die younger.
But there are likely other issues at play with people in red states having lower life expectancies.
Health differences
Research shows in 2020 that Americans in blue states tend to live longer than people in red states, mainly due to state policies on everything from seat belt laws to abortion laws. That research also identified health policies as a key factor.
People in blue states also tend to have higher health insurance rates than people in red states.
Additionally, when looking at the rates of people diagnosed with cancer in every state, it is clear that people in red states are generally less healthy than people in blue. Residents of red states are also more likely die of heart disease than people in blue states.
But health rates vary greatly among racial and ethnic groups. Black and Hispanic people are more likely than white and Asian people in the US to have no access quality affordable health careregardless of their state of residence.
and Black people remain more likely than whites who have high blood pressure and die of heart disease, among other health conditions.
Low level of education
Another important factor in this life expectancy trend is that people in red states have low level of education than people in blue states.
This is important, because some recent research shows that the level of education is the best predictor of a person’s life span for a variety of complex, interconnected reasons, including an increased tendency to receive a higher education leads to increased income.
Experts also often consider race and ethnicity differently major factorin part because of structural inequalities dealing with people of color that may put access to quality affordable education out of reach, for example.
Lack of education may be the most direct cause lower income and shorter life – but it’s not clear whether achieving a higher level of education makes people richer, or whether people born into wealth get more education.
Do people act to die young?
There are other factors that complicate the question of life expectancy, and differences in longevity among states.
One reason identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, is that there are so many gun deaths – through murder and suicide – in the red state than the blue state.
People move to different states in the US for different reasons – including, in some cases, political ideologies. While blue ZIP codes are found to be more blue, the red ones become more red.
But it is important to remember that life expectancy and health data are only averages, and therefore there is high variation within particular locations.
You are the people in red and blue states who dispute these statistics – more people live longer in poor red states, and people die younger in rich blue states. .
However, the general trends are clear. People who live in blue states – by and large – tend to live longer, healthier and wealthier lives.
Robert Samuels is Continuing Lecturer in Writing, University of California, Santa Barbara.
This article was reprinted from The Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the original article.