Americans live longest in Hawaii, at 80.0 years, and shortest in West Virginia, at 72.2.[1] That is a 7.8-year spread from the top of the list to the bottom, against a national average of 77.5. Nearly every state gained ground in the latest rebound, but not one has climbed all the way back to where it stood before the pandemic.
Hawaii lives longest at 80.0 years, and West Virginia lives shortest at 72.2, a 7.8-year gap.
The latest rebound added 1.1 years to the national number, yet all 51 jurisdictions still sit below their pre-pandemic level.
Women outlive men in every state, from a 3.6-year gap in Utah to 6.9 years in New Mexico.
Reach 65 and you average 18.9 more years, and the gap between states narrows to 3.9.
Nationally, life expectancy has climbed back to 79.0, though no state-by-state ranking that new exists yet.
Here is the full ranking, and the story the data tells behind it.
On the map
Life expectancy by state in 2022, mapped
Shaded by rank, darkest = No. 1 (Hawaii). Binned around the US average of 77.5 years.Shaded by life expectancy, darkest = highest (80.0, Hawaii); lightest = lowest (72.2, West Virginia).
Source: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12, U.S. State Life Tables 2022.
Life expectancy by state in 2022: all 50 states plus DC, ranked
Hawaii finishes first at 80.0 years. West Virginia finishes last at 72.2.[1] The national average of 77.5 splits the country unevenly: 21 states sit above it, 28 sit below, and Illinois and Virginia land right on it.
Ranks come from the CDC’s unrounded numbers. That is why Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana all read 73.8, yet hold four different ranks, 45 through 48. Small states carry more statistical noise too, so a 0.1-year gap between neighbors is not worth much.
Rank
State
LE 2022
Male
Female
Sex gap
Change since 2019
Change 2021–22
1
Hawaii
80.0
77.1
83.0
5.9
−0.9
+0.1
2
Massachusetts
79.8
77.4
82.2
4.8
−0.6
+0.2
3
New Jersey
79.6
77.1
82.0
4.9
−0.5
+0.6
4
New York
79.5
76.9
82.1
5.2
−1.2
+0.5
5
Connecticut
79.4
76.8
82.1
5.3
−0.9
+0.2
6
California
79.3
76.7
82.1
5.4
−1.6
+1.0
7
Minnesota
79.3
77.0
81.6
4.6
−1.1
+0.5
8
Rhode Island
79.2
76.6
81.8
5.2
−0.3
+0.7
9
Utah
79.0
77.3
80.9
3.6
−0.7
+0.8
10
New Hampshire
78.7
76.5
81.0
4.5
−0.7
+0.2
11
Colorado
78.5
76.1
81.0
4.9
−1.5
+0.8
12
Idaho
78.4
76.4
80.6
4.2
−1.1
+1.2
13
Washington
78.4
76.1
80.9
4.8
−1.6
+0.2
14
Nebraska
78.3
76.0
80.7
4.7
−0.9
+0.5
15
Vermont
78.3
75.8
80.8
5.0
−1.5
−0.1
16
Wisconsin
78.1
75.7
80.7
5.0
−1.2
+0.3
17
North Dakota
77.9
75.4
80.8
5.4
−0.9
+0.3
18
Iowa
77.9
75.6
80.4
4.8
−1.1
+0.2
19
Florida
77.9
75.2
80.7
5.5
−1.1
+1.8
20
Maryland
77.8
75.1
80.5
5.4
−0.7
+0.6
21
Oregon
77.7
75.2
80.4
5.2
−1.9
+0.3
22
Illinois
77.5
74.9
80.3
5.4
−1.5
+0.4
23
Virginia
77.5
75.0
79.9
4.9
−1.6
+0.7
24
Pennsylvania
77.3
74.7
79.9
5.2
−1.0
+0.9
25
South Dakota
77.3
75.2
79.5
4.3
−1.1
+0.7
26
Montana
77.3
74.9
80.0
5.1
−1.1
+1.5
27
Texas
77.1
74.6
79.8
5.2
−1.5
+1.7
28
Wyoming
76.8
74.6
79.3
4.7
−0.9
+1.8
29
Michigan
76.8
74.3
79.3
5.0
−1.2
+1.1
30
Arizona
76.7
73.7
79.9
6.2
−2.1
+1.7
31
Maine
76.6
73.9
79.6
5.7
−1.7
−0.1
32
District of Columbia
76.6
73.3
79.6
6.3
−1.4
+1.3
33
Delaware
76.5
73.6
79.5
5.9
−1.6
+0.2
34
Kansas
76.5
74.1
78.9
4.8
−1.7
+0.5
35
Nevada
76.4
74.0
79.1
5.1
−1.6
+1.3
36
Georgia
75.9
73.1
78.6
5.5
−1.5
+1.6
37
North Carolina
75.9
73.0
78.7
5.7
−1.7
+1.0
38
Alaska
75.8
73.7
78.3
4.6
−1.9
+1.3
39
Ohio
75.6
73.0
78.3
5.3
−1.3
+1.1
40
Indiana
75.4
72.7
78.2
5.5
−1.6
+0.8
41
Missouri
75.2
72.5
78.1
5.6
−1.7
+0.6
42
South Carolina
75.1
72.2
78.1
5.9
−1.7
+1.6
43
New Mexico
74.5
71.2
78.1
6.9
−2.4
+1.5
44
Arkansas
73.9
71.3
76.6
5.3
−1.8
+1.4
45
Oklahoma
73.8
71.3
76.5
5.2
−1.9
+1.1
46
Tennessee
73.8
70.9
76.9
6.0
−1.8
+1.4
47
Alabama
73.8
70.8
77.0
6.2
−1.4
+1.8
48
Louisiana
73.8
70.6
77.2
6.6
−1.9
+1.6
49
Kentucky
73.6
71.1
76.2
5.1
−1.9
+1.3
50
Mississippi
72.6
69.5
75.7
6.2
−1.8
+1.7
51
West Virginia
72.2
69.5
75.1
5.6
−2.3
+1.2
–
United States
77.5
74.8
80.2
5.4
−1.3
+1.1
All values: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12 (2022); change columns computed against the 2019 and 2021 CDC editions. Click any column header to sort; the United States row is the national average.
The top 10 and bottom 10 states, 2022. Bars start at 70 years, not zero, so the differences read; the vertical line is the US average, 77.5. Hawaii to West Virginia is a 7.8-year spread.
Top 10
1. Hawaii80.0
2. Massachusetts79.8
3. New Jersey79.6
4. New York79.5
5. Connecticut79.4
6. California79.3
7. Minnesota79.3
8. Rhode Island79.2
9. Utah79.0
10. New Hampshire78.7
↕ 7.8 years separate #1 from #51
Bottom 10
42. South Carolina75.1
43. New Mexico74.5
44. Arkansas73.9
45. Oklahoma73.8
46. Tennessee73.8
47. Alabama73.8
48. Louisiana73.8
49. Kentucky73.6
50. Mississippi72.6
51. West Virginia72.2
Source: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12. Axis 70–82 years; | marks the US average (77.5).
The rebound
The recovery nobody finished
The pandemic hit states at very different depths. From 2019 to 2021, New Mexico lost 3.9 years and Arizona lost 3.8. Louisiana, West Virginia, and Mississippi each gave up 3.5. Massachusetts lost only 0.8.[5] The gap between the best and worst state stretched from 6.5 years to 9.0.
Then the states that fell hardest bounced back hardest. Florida, Wyoming, and Alabama each gained 1.8 years in a single year, and the spread compressed back to 7.8. But every one of the 51 jurisdictions still ended below where it started. Rhode Island came closest, 0.3 years short. New Mexico stayed furthest behind, 2.4 years down.
Change in life expectancy, 2019→2022. Every bar points left. The right-hand side of the axis is reserved for states that got back above their 2019 level, and it is empty.
← still below 2019back above 2019
Rhode Island −0.3
New Jersey −0.5
Massachusetts −0.6
Maryland −0.7
New Hampshire −0.7
Utah −0.7
Connecticut −0.9
Hawaii −0.9
Nebraska −0.9
North Dakota −0.9
Wyoming −0.9
Pennsylvania −1.0
Florida −1.1
Idaho −1.1
Iowa −1.1
Minnesota −1.1
Montana −1.1
South Dakota −1.1
Michigan −1.2
New York −1.2
Wisconsin −1.2
Ohio −1.3
United States −1.3
Alabama −1.4
District of Columbia −1.4
Colorado −1.5
Georgia −1.5
Illinois −1.5
Texas −1.5
Vermont −1.5
California −1.6
Delaware −1.6
Indiana −1.6
Nevada −1.6
Virginia −1.6
Washington −1.6
Kansas −1.7
Maine −1.7
Missouri −1.7
North Carolina −1.7
South Carolina −1.7
Arkansas −1.8
Mississippi −1.8
Tennessee −1.8
Alaska −1.9
Kentucky −1.9
Louisiana −1.9
Oklahoma −1.9
Oregon −1.9
Arizona −2.1
West Virginia −2.3
New Mexico −2.4
0 states
Source: CDC/NCHS state life tables, 2019 and 2022 editions. US national change (−1.3) shown in black.
The upheaval scrambled the rankings, too. Washington climbed from 8th to 2nd, then slid to 13th. New York took the biggest early fall, eleven spots and 3.0 years, from 3rd all the way down to 16th, before clawing back to 4th.[5] Hawaii held first place through all of it. Last place changed hands, from Mississippi to West Virginia.
The long view
Life expectancy since 2022 keeps climbing
Nationally, the country has kept getting healthier since then. The newest national figure is 79.0 years, which NCHS calls a record high, just past the 2014 peak of 78.9.[3] The year before, it was 78.4.[2] These are national numbers only, so whether any single state is back above its pre-pandemic level is a question the data cannot answer yet.
Step back a century and the recent swings shrink. Life expectancy was 47.3 years in 1900. The 1918 flu knocked it down to 39.1. By 1950 it was 68.2, and by 2018 it had reached 78.7.[4] The pandemic dip and rebound is one sharp notch near the end of a century of steady climbing.
US life expectancy at birth, 1900–2024. The solid line is NCHS’s machine-readable series, which ends at 2018. The dashed segment and dots (2019–2024) are appended from individually cited CDC reports.
Sources: NCHS life expectancy series 1900–2018 (machine-readable); 2019–2024 appended per year from CDC state/national life tables and FastStats. The “1900–present” dataset genuinely stops at 2018.
Men and women
The sex gap: where being a man costs the most years
Women outlive men in every one of the 51 jurisdictions. No exceptions. The national gap is 5.4 years, but it swings a lot by state. It runs from 3.6 years in Utah up to 6.9 in New Mexico, where men average 71.2 years and women 78.1.[1]
Here is the pattern inside that range: the widest gaps sit in the states with the shortest lives overall. The two move together, a correlation of −0.52 across all 51 jurisdictions. Only two states have male life expectancy under 70, Mississippi and West Virginia, both at 69.5. And Massachusetts leads for men at 77.4, even though Hawaii leads overall.
Male → female life expectancy by state, 2022, sorted by the size of the gap, from Utah’s 3.6 years up to New Mexico’s 6.9. men women
gap
Utah3.6
Idaho4.2
South Dakota4.3
New Hampshire4.5
Alaska4.6
Minnesota4.6
Nebraska4.7
Wyoming4.7
Iowa4.8
Kansas4.8
Massachusetts4.8
Washington4.8
Colorado4.9
New Jersey4.9
Virginia4.9
Michigan5.0
Vermont5.0
Wisconsin5.0
Kentucky5.1
Montana5.1
Nevada5.1
New York5.2
Oklahoma5.2
Oregon5.2
Pennsylvania5.2
Rhode Island5.2
Texas5.2
Arkansas5.3
Connecticut5.3
Ohio5.3
California5.4
Illinois5.4
Maryland5.4
North Dakota5.4
Florida5.5
Georgia5.5
Indiana5.5
Missouri5.6
West Virginia5.6
Maine5.7
North Carolina5.7
Delaware5.9
Hawaii5.9
South Carolina5.9
Tennessee6.0
Alabama6.2
Arizona6.2
Mississippi6.2
District of Columbia6.3
Louisiana6.6
New Mexico6.9
Source: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12. Axis 69–84 years.
Later life
If you make it to 65, the map flattens out
Life expectancy at birth is not a countdown clock. It gets pulled down by deaths that strike early in life, so once you have survived those decades, the outlook improves a lot. A 65-year-old American averages 18.9 more years. That works out to about age 83.9, well past the 77.5 you see at birth.[1]
The gap between states shrinks at 65, too. At birth, Hawaii and West Virginia sit 7.8 years apart. At 65, the spread runs from 16.6 remaining years in West Virginia to 20.5 in Hawaii, a gap of just 3.9. It does not disappear, though. A 65-year-old in Hawaii still averages 23.5% more time left than one in West Virginia.
So keep this next to any list of the best states to retire in: once you reach 65, the distance between the top and bottom of this table is about half what the headline numbers suggest.
The state gap at birth versus at age 65. Bars share one scale. Reaching 65 cuts the distance between the longest- and shortest-lived states from 7.8 years to 3.9.
At birth (Hawaii to West Virginia)7.8 yrs
At age 65 (Hawaii to West Virginia)3.9 yrs
Source: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12. At-65 figures are the report abstract’s extremes (Hawaii 20.5, West Virginia 16.6 remaining years).
One shape
The map everyone recognizes
Put this map next to almost any other map of the country and the shapes line up. It looks like the poverty map, the obesity map, and the education map all at once. You can run that comparison yourself against our poorest states in America and safest states in America rankings.
The bottom ten are a Southern and Appalachian block, plus New Mexico: West Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, and South Carolina. The top ten are Northeastern and Western, plus Minnesota, Hawaii, and Utah. The CDC’s own report describes the same regional split.
Why is the honest question, and the life tables do not answer it. They count deaths, not the reasons behind them. The usual suspects are poverty, smoking, obesity, health care access, and outcomes on Native reservations, and the loop where poor health feeds poverty is real.
County maps look even more extreme, but small-county estimates are mostly noise. That is how one widely shared ranking once crowned tiny Mono County, California at 98.9 years, a figure that is pure statistical noise.
Life expectancy at birth by state, 2022. Binned around the US average of 77.5: 21 states above, Illinois and Virginia at it exactly, 28 below. Hover or tap a tile for the state’s value and rank.
Below 74.0 (8)74.0–75.9 (8)76.0–77.4 (12)At the US average (77.5) (2)77.6–78.9 (12)79.0 and up (9)
Source: CDC/NCHS NVSR 74-12, U.S. State Life Tables 2022.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: what “life expectancy at birth” means, and why other sites show different numbers
What we measured: life expectancy at birth for each state, plus the male and female figures, the gap between them, the change since 2019, and the one-year rebound.
Where the data comes from: every state number here is from the CDC/NCHS report “U.S. State Life Tables, 2022,” National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 74, Number 12, published December 4, 2025.[1] This is the most recent official state-level release available. These are period life tables built from real death certificates, converted into age-specific death rates.
How to read it: a period life table is a snapshot of one year’s death rates, not a forecast for babies born today. It also answers a common question about Florida, where people assume retirees dying there drag the number down. They do not, because the math uses age-specific rates, so an 80-year-old’s death counts against the 80-year-old rate, not against newborns.
Why other sites disagree: two data families are in circulation. The CDC publishes observed data from death certificates, which is why it lags, with 2022 the newest state year and no state-level 2023 in existence. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation publishes modeled estimates that run about a year higher and sometimes rank states differently, which is why one popular page shows Hawaii at 81.11 and calls Mississippi the lowest state under a CDC citation, when official data puts Hawaii at 80.0 and West Virginia last.[6] Even CDC’s own interactive map for 2022 links its download button to the older 2021 file, so this ranking was transcribed from the report’s PDF tables and cross-checked against its printed summary, which reproduced the official change figures exactly, 48 states plus DC up and only Maine and Vermont down 0.1.
Known limits: standard errors matter for small states, so tight ranks are not meaningfully different; the article computes no poverty or income correlation and does not claim one; and county numbers are out of scope because small-area estimates are unreliable.
The vintage ladder: which year of data exists at which level
2022 — newest state-level data (used for everything here)
2023 — national only: 78.4
2024 — national only: 79.0, a record high per NCHS
2025 — provisional, national only
Any 50-state table claiming to be newer than 2022 is modeled, mislabeled, or both.
Bottom line
The newest state numbers run from 80.0 years in Hawaii to 72.2 in West Virginia, with the country at 77.5. The rebound was real and nearly universal. But not one state has made it back to where it stood before the pandemic, and the map keeps its familiar shape: Northeast and West on top, South and Appalachia at the bottom, men trailing women everywhere.
If you have already reached 65, take some comfort. You have outrun most of what separates the top of this table from the bottom. Longevity is just one line on a longer list when you are weighing the best states to live in. A 7.8-year spread still earns it a spot there.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average life expectancy in the US?
The average life expectancy in the US is 79.0 years, the newest national figure from the CDC and one NCHS calls a record high. The newest data with state-level detail puts the national average at 77.5 years, and that is the line every state in this ranking gets measured against.
Which US state has the highest life expectancy?
Hawaii has the highest life expectancy of any US state, at 80.0 years. Massachusetts is next at 79.8, followed by New Jersey at 79.6, New York at 79.5, and Connecticut at 79.4. Hawaii also held first place through every year of the pandemic.
Which US state has the lowest life expectancy?
West Virginia has the lowest life expectancy of any US state, at 72.2 years. Mississippi is next at 72.6. Many older rankings still list Mississippi last, but the newest official data moved West Virginia to the bottom. Those two are also the only states where men average under 70 years, at 69.5 each.
How much longer do women live than men in the US?
Women live 5.4 years longer than men in the US on average, 80.2 years versus 74.8. Women outlive men in all 50 states plus DC, and the size of the gap swings by state, from 3.6 years in Utah up to 6.9 years in New Mexico.
Is there life expectancy by state data for 2023, 2024, or 2025?
No, there is no state-level life expectancy data for 2023, 2024, or 2025 yet. The newest official state numbers cover 2022. The CDC has published national figures for 2023 (78.4 years) and 2024 (79.0 years), and its 2025 estimates are provisional and national only. Any 50-state table labeled with a newer year rests on modeled estimates or a mislabeled vintage.
Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.
He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.
If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.
