Kentuckians’ lives are shorter than those in most other states, study shows. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky ranks in the bottom 10 states for life expectancy at 72.3 years.
- High smoking rates, low gym access and poor food options drive poor health.
- Nursa’s index uses pollution, food, recreation and smoking data to rank states.
Kentucky numbers among the least healthy states in the U.S., with one of the lowest life expectancies, a recent state-by-state analysis reveals.
In the report from Nursa, a healthcare staffing company, Kentucky ranked among the bottom 10 states for life expectancy, with an average of 72.3 years. That’s about six years less than the national average of 78.4 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to Allison Adams, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, the state needs serious investments in housing, transportation and other essentials to move the needle on life expectancy.
“Kentucky’s lower life expectancy reflects systems that are too often trying to treat illness after it happens, instead of preventing it in the first place,” Adams told the Herald-Leader in a statement emailed via a spokesperson.
“To move the needle, we need policies and investments that strengthen public health and improve our social, economic, and community conditions where health begins,” Adams continued. “We can help Kentuckians live longer, healthier lives by having a stronger focus on prevention and access to the essentials that impact our well-being like housing, food, transportation, quality care and opportunity.”
In its Healthiest States Index, Nursa also scored states on several factors that correlate with generally healthy or unhealthy populations, such as levels of pollution, smoking rates and the availability of public parks and places to shop for food, among other factors.
Here’s a deeper look at the analysis, including what factors drive the Bluegrass State’s lower-than-average life expectancy.
How did Nursa find the healthiest states?
To analyze each state’s overall health, Nursa looked at its performance on several factors, including:
- Access to public health infrastructure, measured by the number of parks, gyms, swimming pools and walkable routes, such as trails and footpaths. Location data was sourced from OpenStreetMap.
- Access to whole foods, measured by the number of healthy places to shop, such as grocery and health foods stores, versus unhealthy places, like fast food restaurants and bars.
- Pollution data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess levels of common pollutants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.
- The percentage of adults who smoke, sourced from the CDC.
- Hospital readmission rates.
- Life expectancy data from the CDC.
The number of parks, gyms, pools, walkable routes and healthy versus unhealthy food retailers was normalized by population, reported per 100,000 people. In assigning final scores, Nursa used a percent-rank method for the fairest possible comparison.
Why is Kentucky’s life expectancy so low?
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy was on the decline in Kentucky.
Ongoing public health challenges around chronic disease, especially high heart disease and cancer rates, along with substance abuse, high poverty, smoking and obesity rates have contributed to its decline.
Several of these factors show up in Nursa’s analysis, including:
- One of the highest smoking rates in the country. More than 20% of adults in Kentucky smoke, according to Nursa.
- Fewer places to workout. Kentucky has 4.28 gyms per 100,000 people. Compare that to Oregon, a state with a similar population size, which has 14.73 gyms per 100,000 people. Similarly, Oregon has 26.75 parks per 100,000 people. Kentucky has 9.55 parks per 100,000 people.
- Kentucky has more places to buy unhealthy foods than healthy foods: 26.22 to 20.41 per 100,000 people, respectively.
Which US states have the highest and lowest life expectancy?
Kentucky ranks among the bottom 10 states for the lowest life expectancy, according to Nursa:
- South Carolina: 73.5 years
- New Mexico: 73 years
- Oklahoma: 72.7 years
- Arkansas: 72.5 years
- Tennessee: 72.4 years
- Kentucky: 72.3 years
- Louisiana: 72.2 years
- Alabama: 72 years
- West Virginia: 71 years
- Mississippi: 70.9 years
The U.S. states with the highest life expectancy include:
- Hawaii: 79.9 years
- Massachusetts: 79.6 years
- Connecticut: 79.2 years
- New Jersey: 79 years
- New York: 79 years
- Minnesota: 78.8 years
- New Hampshire: 78.5 years
- Rhode Island: 78.5 years
- Vermont: 78.4 years
- California: 78.3 years
Kentucky’s low life expectancy was a contributing factor in a previous analysis of places to retire, according to a 2023 WalletHub analysis.
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