Life Expectancy by County
Census tract life expectancy estimates from the CDC's U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP, 2010–2015), aggregated to the county level and mapped on Census Bureau county boundaries.
National County Average
77.7 yrs
Across 3104 counties
Highest Life Expectancy
89.5 yrs
Cheyenne County, CO
Lowest Life Expectancy
66.81 yrs
Oglala Lakota County, SD
Top Quartile
794 counties · 79.5–89.5 yrs
Life expectancy at or above Q3 (79.5 yrs). Highest ten:
- 1Cheyenne County, CO89.5 yrs
- 2Wayne County, UT89.3 yrs
- 3Haskell County, KS88.6 yrs
- 4Stanton County, KS87.9 yrs
- 5Custer County, ID87.7 yrs
- 6Sherman County, TX87.3 yrs
- 7Crook County, WY87.1 yrs
- 8Granite County, MT87 yrs
- 9Aleutians East Borough, AK86.9 yrs
- 10Concho County, TX86.8 yrs
Bottom Quartile
786 counties · 66.81–75.9 yrs
Life expectancy at or below Q1 (75.9 yrs). Lowest ten:
- 1Oglala Lakota County, SD66.81 yrs
- 2East Carroll Parish, LA69.1 yrs
- 3McIntosh County, OK69.7 yrs
- 4Breathitt County, KY70.2 yrs
- 5Powell County, KY70.8 yrs
- 6Kusilvak Census Area, AK70.83 yrs
- 7Tallahatchie County, MS70.9 yrs
- 8Sussex County, VA71 yrs
- 9Madison Parish, LA71.4 yrs
- 10Walker County, AL71.4 yrs
Methodology & Sources
Life Expectancy: Estimates of life expectancy at birth for U.S. census tracts from the CDC National Center for Health Statistics' U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP), covering the period 2010–2015. County-level values are the mean of all census tract estimates within each county.
Coverage: USALEEP covers 65,662 census tracts across all states except Maine and Wisconsin. Counties in those states show as "No data" on the map.
IHME 2014 Supplement: The CDC suppresses life expectancy for some counties with insufficient mortality data (notably several Native American reservation counties in South Dakota and North Dakota). For those gaps, county-level estimates from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME, 2014) are used, sourced via Wikipedia's list of U.S. counties with shortest life expectancy. These records are labeled "IHME 2014" in the data period field.
County Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files (2023 vintage, 1:500,000 scale), rendered via Leaflet. County FIPS codes from the Census Bureau county reference data join the life expectancy estimates to the map.
Disclaimer: For educational and informational purposes only. This dashboard aggregates publicly available data from IRS Form 990 filings and third-party sources; figures may be incomplete, estimated, or out of date. Nothing here constitutes legal, financial, tax, or medical advice, or an endorsement or judgment of any organization or individual. Always verify with official filings and qualified professionals before relying on any figure.