Time July 8, 2019TheBrief News
U.S. life expecTancy iS cUrrenTly
78.6 years—a number determined by factors
including genes, gender, lifestyle and luck.
But the single best predictor of longevity
might be geography. Growing evidence sug-
gests people’s ZIP codes might hold the most
information about how long they’ll live.
Researchers from the New York Univer-
sity School of Medicine recently used data
from NYU Langone Health’s City Health
Dashboard to find that 56 of the 500 larg-
est U.S. cities are home to people who
can expect to live at least 20 fewer years
than those in other neighborhoods, even
if they’re just blocks away. In Chicago, the
city with the largest disparity, life expec-
tancy varied by 30.1 years between neigh-
borhoods; in both Washington, D.C., and
New York City, it varied by more than
27 years. Meanwhile, residents of Fishers,
Ind., the city with the smallest gap, can ex-
pect to die within 2.4 years of their neigh-
bors across the city.
Where you live directly affects your
health in a number of ways, from exposure
to air pollution and toxins to accessibility of
healthy food, green space and medical care.
It’s also a subtler indicator of socioeconomic
factors that are inherent to health and lon-
gevity, including race and income. The cit-
ies with the widest gaps in life expectancy,
the NYU researchers found, were those most
segregated by race and ethnicity, with pre-
dominantly minority neighborhoods often
facing obstacles—like untenable housing
costs or subpar social services—that didn’t
affect majority-white neighborhoods to
the same degree. Chicago is far more segre-
gated than most U.S. cities, and largely black
neighborhoods on the South Side have the
city’s lowest life expectancies.
Links among race, poverty and health
have been reinforced by years of inequality,
and disentangling them won’t be easy. But,
the NYU researchers argue, understanding
the ties between ZIP code and health can
help local lawmakers, public-health officials
and community representatives begin to
level the playing field for their constituents.
—Jamie DUcharme anD eliJah WolfSonNEWS
TICKER
Medal of
Honor given to
Iraq War vetPresident Donald
Trump on June
presented the Medal
of Honor to Army Staff
Sgt. David Bellavia,
making him the first
living veteran of the
Iraq War to receive the
country’s top military
award. Bellavia’s
actions during the
Battle of Fallujah were
featured in a TIME
cover story in 2004.Mueller to
testify on
findingsFormer special counsel
Robert Mueller plans
to testify before the
House Permanent
Select Committee
on Intelligence and
the House Judiciary
Committee on July 17.
Mueller was reluctant
to testify, saying his
report on the 2016
election spoke for
itself, but agreed
to appear after the
committees issued a
subpoena compelling
him to do so.Passenger
train derails in
BangladeshA train carrying about
2,000 people derailed
while crossing a
bridge in northeast
Bangladesh on
June 23, killing at
least five people and
injuring more than 100,
officials say. Rescuers
used cranes to pull up
two carriages that were
dangling over a canal.GOOD QUESTION
Does ZIP code equal
life expectancy?Urban split
These maps show average life
expectancy in the Census tracts of
the U.S.’s three most disparate cities:60 65 70 75 80 85 90
Life expectancy (in years)D.C.
In the capital,
lower life
expectancies—
and poverty—are
concentrated
east of the
Anacostia River.NEW YORK
Just a few blocks
separate the
Upper East Side,
with some of the
city’s longest life
expectancies, from
Harlem, with some
of the shortest.CHICAGO
The lowest
life-expectancy
estimates are
concentrated
in the city’s
predominantly
African-
American
South Side.