We Live Shorter Lives Than Most of Rhode Island

Coventry residents don't live as long as most other Rhode Islanders. Coventry and other women in Kent County have an average life expectancy of 80.6 years. Female Rhode Island residents on the whole live for an average of 81.4 years.

Using the map above, you can see how Kent County residents compare with the rest of Rhode Island and the nation. And compared with neighboring Providence County, women in Kent County die sooner by 0.6 years.

Across the country, people are living long than ever, according to a new study from the University of Washington, which analyzed life expectancy rates for both men and women from 1985-2010.

Throughout the US, major improvements in life expectancy occurred in areas with large metropolises, like parts of California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, New York and Virginia. But the disparity is widening, with counties in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama seeing declines or stagnations in residents’ average age of death.

Researchers also found that women were living longer than men in every county in 2010. But men are catching up, having added 5.3 years to their lives since 1985, while women only added three.

Even more worrisome is that 45% of women in counties nationwide are dying younger now or at the same rate than they were in 1985. So while men are living longer in counties across the country, women are remaining stagnant in much of the country.

“As a nation, what we can do about that is have a concerted effort to tackle the key preventable causes in those communities where there is no improvement,” said IHME Director Christopher Murray. He told Patch that in places where there is stagnation, local communities should “focus on changing things there that we know can make a difference, like diet, tobacco, high blood pressure and physical inactivity.”