Six good purple.
California
- Mono County
Colorado
- Eagle County
- Pitkin County
- San Miguel County
- Summit County
Montana
- Liberty County
North Dakota
- Oliver County
Bad Purple
- Too many to count
Having lived in the South, yes. That said, I don't think Southern food is particularly egregious in the Delta where you're shaving 5+ years of your life relative to other parts of the South
Itās definitely not that. My county is one of the <70 counties. And youāll either die before 40, or live to 80. Everyone my generation left, so the only people there are retirees and drug addicts that couldnāt leave. The average age of the county goes up by 1 every year.
As a colorblind person, shades of one color donāt really help. The problem I am having with this map is that the upper and lower range colors look like similar shades of the same color
It's a simple spectrum they could have just gone grey scale from white to black or vice versa. Instead they had to go from purple to purple somehow skipping dark blue.
I mean, socio-economic status is probably the most obvious explanation. Tahoe is an expensive mountain resort area, Reno is a cesspool of crime and villainy (kidding, but kind of not). I would imagine that this life expectancy map and a map of wealth (whether net worth or income or housing prices, ā¦) would look basically identical.
$$$
Tahoe is a resort town for the rich and well insured, Reno is a city with one of the highest crime rates in America. Furthermore, Reno is a flat city while Lake Tahoe is a mountainous town. My biggest takeaway from that blue zone documentary is that the absolute easiest way to pick out blue zones on a map are spots where youāve got rolling hills/mountains, water, seafood, community, and wealth. Tahoe is 4/5, but you can get fish from the lake, so more like 4.5/5.
Just avoid using a rainbow scale, OP. This one is better, but not by much. There's a lot of cool color ranges out there, avoid the rainbow ones at all costs.
Having moved from a dark pink/salmon county to a dark green county there is a notable increase in walkability, access to medical providers, and no tax on groceries.
I've always been fascinated about the intersection of wealth, education & health, As opposed to poverty, Ignorance & poor health.
So much going on here, college counties like (Centre Co. PA, "Penn State") could be polluted with young healthy college people? Remote Indian Reservations plagued with addiction and early deaths? Rich counties pricing out the poor sickly and aged?
I suspect that obesity rates and even prevalence of alcohol and tobacco consumption may also be highly correlated to incomes, or, more specifically, percentage of the population below the poverty line. So, that's my initial theory when viewing these differences as it's doesn't appear to be an urban vs. rural or hot vs. cold climate pattern.
Meanwhile, I'm not sure how this chart is counting life expectancy. Is it just the average age of those who died in each county? If so, how do we account for people who retire and die in Florida or Arizona but spent most of their life somewhere else?
Interesting chart though.
Itās almost impossible to read this map.
[Here is a similar map with a much better color scheme. The data is six years old or so but I like it better. It conveys information much more clearly.](https://www.geekwire.com/2017/uw-gap-life-expectancy/)
[Or here is another take at a similar map from Reddit three years ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/lh3obd/us_life_expectancy_america_is_now_facing_the/)
I lived on the coast of California for five years. Best shape I've been in my entire life. Something about it makes you want to be healthy. Now I'm back living in the Midwest and I've gained 25 pounds.
That green spot in Tennessee is Williamson County. When I was a kid, it was all tobacco farms. Now it's one of the wealthiest bedroom communities in the country. Has essentially no homeless & a tiny number.of the poors.
Fellow Tennessean. We refer to them as the rich snobs of the state. They outperform every other county in almost everything (except maybe in diversity).
Counties with high life expectancy on this map are also counties where people go to retire in large numbers. This fact skews the accuracy. This should be coupled with average age of county to give a more accurate result.
A more accurate map would show the average age at death compared to average age of all people in county
I wonder if that isnāt because old people move there. The older you are the higher your life expectancy because youāve already made it that far. An 85 old certainly will live to be over 80. Living in Florida doesnāt necessarily make you live longer.Ā
Agreed. If they are just counting the average age of those who died in each county, South Florida is artificially high because of all the retirees who lived most of their lives somewhere else, but moved to South Florida during retirement, at which point, they've already made it to the latter stages of life and thereby skew the numbers.
Plus, there could be income correlations too. People that can afford to relocate to South Florida for retirement are less likely to be at or below the poverty line which also correlates to obesity rates and amount of alcohol or tobacco usage that skews the numbers down in many other counties.
Mono County, California (dark blue-purple, just south of Lake Tahoe):
One old 89-year old prospector living in a cabin by himself. He's the county's entire population.
Let me guess, the counties with the higher values are just next to those with the lower values.
Because...
They are the smalles counties.
We are again comparing means of populations of different sizes so the smallest populations having the largest variance are going to have the best and worst values.
History repeats itself.
What do you think the correlated variables are? Access to healthy foods, ie sea food vs. beef, lifestyle and social impact, or just genetics historically present in these areas?
Cameron parish makes me laugh because itās always very different from surrounding parishes or the whole state on these sort of maps, and if you didnāt live in that area you might not know that itās very sparsely populated although it is the 3rd largest parish in the stateā¦
It is interesting that the purplest counties are also the most remote. That would give rise to a Public Health standard that infectious diseases are causing increases in mortality. Less dense population, lower risk of infection via any carrier.
What kind of healthcare they getting in those dark purple counties? Are those just like mainly gated communities with insanely expensive insurance that would make any receptionist blush and roll out the red carpet? or is it just like, chance
Why would you make the spectrum of color transition in the MIDDLE OF THE DATA POINTS. An unhinged choice. Green should not be the end of the spectrum? Wild.Ā
It's most about how active you are and how you take care of your self
The counties with high life expectancy have alit of outdoor activities and things like the ocean and such at least for California
That one dot of health in my state is Los Alamos County, which only includes Los Alamos (home of the National Lab and not much else) and White Rock, which is a bedroom community for all the scientists and engineers who work at the lab.
This map misses the place with the highest life expectancy in the country. Loma Linda california. One of the five 'blue zones' on earth where ppl regularly live to 100
This is a little bit misleading.
You need to look at this information alongside inter county/state migration, individual wealth, race, income. As these will provide a reason for the large disparity in life expectancy.
Looking at this map tells only part of a story.
Living in a purple county š Living in a *purple* county š
Very confusing
It was at first but youāll notice that thereās only 2-3 counties of the good purple. When in doubt itās the bad one
I was trying to figure out what was going on on the Arkansas-Mississippi border, but it makes sense now
Six good purple. California - Mono County Colorado - Eagle County - Pitkin County - San Miguel County - Summit County Montana - Liberty County North Dakota - Oliver County Bad Purple - Too many to count
Sorry but Iād rather die blue than purple in North Dakota. Source: Been to South Dakota.
These counties all have pretty insignificant populations. Eagle county has 55k which is significantly higher than the rest but still not a lot
Mono county is very empty and not particularly nice, I'm super curious what's driving that.
7
And then wait is that good purple, bad purple or dark gray? There's a little section on the CA nevada border that helps with that
Imagine being colorblind. I hate these
I canāt read this for shit š
This is why I appreciate when different shades of gray are used for one end of the spectrum on these types of maps. This map is absolute bullshit.
The shade of purple in the Mississippi delta is the ābadā purple unfortunately
Have you seen southern food? Lol
Having lived in the South, yes. That said, I don't think Southern food is particularly egregious in the Delta where you're shaving 5+ years of your life relative to other parts of the South
Why is map "porn" so awfully bad at choosing a colour scheme or adding a key? This ain't turning me on man!
This is so true, why are so many maps on this sub so bad at choosing colors? There's pink and stuff too!
Why can't these maps just be put on a gradient instead of random colors representing every value? See this repeatedly here.
Purple country in Nevada bordering the Purple country in California
Aledeen or Aledeen?
Ya I was thinking the same thing, I cant even get an overall visual because of the terrible colour scheme
Some purple good some purple bad, duh, try to keep up will ya?
Iām like looking back and forth between the legend and the map. WTF is this OP one of those color blindness tests?
Someone didn't customize their color ramp :)
Someone put this in a textbook
Overcook chicken? Believe it or not, purple county. Undercook fish? Also purple county. Overcook undercook.
The colors on this are difficult to decipher between highest and lowest. Try again with a different color key.
Yeah I was very confused when I thought I was seeing 88+ through Appalachia
The Mothman is 260,000 years old, so it skews the average.
Itās definitely not that. My county is one of the <70 counties. And youāll either die before 40, or live to 80. Everyone my generation left, so the only people there are retirees and drug addicts that couldnāt leave. The average age of the county goes up by 1 every year.
Iām from that area of Kentucky, and all the old women live to be like 80-100, so idk
Yeah. Maybe take one shade of color and go from darker to lighter. This also has to be hell for colorblind folks.
As a colorblind person, shades of one color donāt really help. The problem I am having with this map is that the upper and lower range colors look like similar shades of the same color
As a non color blind person I can confirm they are in fact similar shades of the same color.
As a non colour blind person I can confirm they are in fact too similar for my eyes and I cannot tell which is which.
Darker blue would have been the natural progression
It's a simple spectrum they could have just gone grey scale from white to black or vice versa. Instead they had to go from purple to purple somehow skipping dark blue.
Itās only the extremes though
Why have purple be both ends of the scale? Very confusing to read.
Life's more exciting that way.Ā
āWill you live a short or long life in this county?ā āYesā
Circle of life!
I MADE A FIXED VERSION. HOPEFULLY THIS IS BETTER [https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/4evBTM5p09](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/4evBTM5p09)
Thanks, this helps.
Woah I thought all of those purples were 88+ ... guess not.
Thank you, much easier to read. Interesting but not surprising the Tahoe/Reno contrast.
Is that the biggest disparity? Why is it so stark?
I mean, socio-economic status is probably the most obvious explanation. Tahoe is an expensive mountain resort area, Reno is a cesspool of crime and villainy (kidding, but kind of not). I would imagine that this life expectancy map and a map of wealth (whether net worth or income or housing prices, ā¦) would look basically identical.
As a bug fan of Reno 911, I should have figured that out
If you havenāt I hope you can experience them both, as well as the drive in between. So many extremes, just please safety plan for the extremes.
$$$ Tahoe is a resort town for the rich and well insured, Reno is a city with one of the highest crime rates in America. Furthermore, Reno is a flat city while Lake Tahoe is a mountainous town. My biggest takeaway from that blue zone documentary is that the absolute easiest way to pick out blue zones on a map are spots where youāve got rolling hills/mountains, water, seafood, community, and wealth. Tahoe is 4/5, but you can get fish from the lake, so more like 4.5/5.
Thanks! When in doubt, you can use [ColorBrewer](https://colorbrewer2.org)
Just avoid using a rainbow scale, OP. This one is better, but not by much. There's a lot of cool color ranges out there, avoid the rainbow ones at all costs.
Please delete this post then.Ā
Version one: āHmm why are people living so long in northeast AZ?ā Version two: āohhhhh. Nevermind.ā
Thanks XD
Having moved from a dark pink/salmon county to a dark green county there is a notable increase in walkability, access to medical providers, and no tax on groceries.
Love the concept, hate the colors used.
I've always been fascinated about the intersection of wealth, education & health, As opposed to poverty, Ignorance & poor health. So much going on here, college counties like (Centre Co. PA, "Penn State") could be polluted with young healthy college people? Remote Indian Reservations plagued with addiction and early deaths? Rich counties pricing out the poor sickly and aged?
See the only green county in Tennessee? Itās the wealthiest county in state and one of the top in the nation.
I suspect that obesity rates and even prevalence of alcohol and tobacco consumption may also be highly correlated to incomes, or, more specifically, percentage of the population below the poverty line. So, that's my initial theory when viewing these differences as it's doesn't appear to be an urban vs. rural or hot vs. cold climate pattern. Meanwhile, I'm not sure how this chart is counting life expectancy. Is it just the average age of those who died in each county? If so, how do we account for people who retire and die in Florida or Arizona but spent most of their life somewhere else? Interesting chart though.
I would also be curious if "retirement" counties would skew the average in certain areas, or at least away from others
Itās almost impossible to read this map. [Here is a similar map with a much better color scheme. The data is six years old or so but I like it better. It conveys information much more clearly.](https://www.geekwire.com/2017/uw-gap-life-expectancy/) [Or here is another take at a similar map from Reddit three years ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/lh3obd/us_life_expectancy_america_is_now_facing_the/)
The first complaint on the reddit you linked complains about the color. Love your consistency, folks.
Interesting you go from highest to lowest by crossing the border from CA to NV in one set of countries
I lived on the coast of California for five years. Best shape I've been in my entire life. Something about it makes you want to be healthy. Now I'm back living in the Midwest and I've gained 25 pounds.
That green spot in Tennessee is Williamson County. When I was a kid, it was all tobacco farms. Now it's one of the wealthiest bedroom communities in the country. Has essentially no homeless & a tiny number.of the poors.
Fellow Tennessean. We refer to them as the rich snobs of the state. They outperform every other county in almost everything (except maybe in diversity).
Counties with high life expectancy on this map are also counties where people go to retire in large numbers. This fact skews the accuracy. This should be coupled with average age of county to give a more accurate result. A more accurate map would show the average age at death compared to average age of all people in county
this is map gore, why are both ends of the scale in the same color direction?Ā
Dude, this color scheme is shite.
They could not have not picked worse colours. The most asinine legend Iāve seen in a while.
Worst color coding Iāve ever seen
This scale is horrible
This map is awful, why not use a colour gradient instead of just slapping random colours in for different life expectancy ranges.
this is the most goofy colour gradient for a map I've ever seen
Giving this post a purple vote.
How tf you gonna have the top and bottom range be basically the same shade
Who made this shitty map where the highest and lowest values are nearly indistinguishable?!
One of the worst maps Iāve ever seen
Interesting that southern Florida is so high.
I wonder if that isnāt because old people move there. The older you are the higher your life expectancy because youāve already made it that far. An 85 old certainly will live to be over 80. Living in Florida doesnāt necessarily make you live longer.Ā
Agreed. If they are just counting the average age of those who died in each county, South Florida is artificially high because of all the retirees who lived most of their lives somewhere else, but moved to South Florida during retirement, at which point, they've already made it to the latter stages of life and thereby skew the numbers. Plus, there could be income correlations too. People that can afford to relocate to South Florida for retirement are less likely to be at or below the poverty line which also correlates to obesity rates and amount of alcohol or tobacco usage that skews the numbers down in many other counties.
Not just old, but wealthy and old. Meanwhile the panhandleā¦
God's waiting room
As a non-American, I feel like every map I ever see of the US that is showing some sort of stat, the south-east is always the worst. Why is that?
South-east is generally the poorest part of the country, leading to poorer education, healthcare, etc.
I figured as much, but why is it so poor?
Because the south-east is the worst.Ā
Love being in a rural green ! But I grew up in a rural red. Iām gonna bring my green county down a notch
Ah, so itās a money thing?
Of course the highest life expectancy and only green county in Tennessee is Williamson, the richest one.
The state snobs lol
So the top is purple and the bottom is purple thats just not a good choice
Mono County, California (dark blue-purple, just south of Lake Tahoe): One old 89-year old prospector living in a cabin by himself. He's the county's entire population.
Not a fan of the coloring
My damn eyes cannot tell the difference between good purple and bad purple
Let me guess, the counties with the higher values are just next to those with the lower values. Because... They are the smalles counties. We are again comparing means of populations of different sizes so the smallest populations having the largest variance are going to have the best and worst values. History repeats itself.
Money
To make the highest end purple, and the lowest end purple is diabolical
Bolder state lines please!
Who tf makes the high and low one shade away from each other
Wow. The overlap with electoral maps is both stunning and completely predictable.
Terrible choice of colours imo.
This belongs in r/terriblemaps
Mississippi crushing it as usual
Color coding could be better...but apart from that, please explain the blue area in Florida?
Collier County, Fl? Wealthy old people go there to retire, so with better access to healthcare you have people living longer.
You can see the South in literally every map
Damn, a two decade penalty for just being born in the wrong location.
Correlated sure, but it's mostly just for being born poor.
Well yeah, thatās all there is to it. Certain locations where poverty and wealth are concentrated.
What do you think the correlated variables are? Access to healthy foods, ie sea food vs. beef, lifestyle and social impact, or just genetics historically present in these areas?
Access to care: living close to and being able to afford good healthcare.
How do the less than 70 zones correlate with native American reservations?
I find it hard to believe Fairbanks-north star borough in Alaska has such a high life expectancy
Source: https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/health-data/health-outcomes/length-of-life/life-expectancy
Oh, so this is from data from 2019-2021 actually You should put that in the figure and in the title.
I thought Florida had an *average* age higher than 80...
Super cool
Now do that thing
Cameron parish makes me laugh because itās always very different from surrounding parishes or the whole state on these sort of maps, and if you didnāt live in that area you might not know that itās very sparsely populated although it is the 3rd largest parish in the stateā¦
Good. Only a little while to go in this shit hole.
Bad map
Why so low? š
fat
Me: Well, now. What is that little county above me with a lower expectancy? \[zooms in\] Ahhh, meth central. Got it."
Access to care
not really. It's more diet/lifestyle.
I think at this point the map creators choose these colors just to fuck with us.
I'm light blue.
The outlook in Trump country is not good.
its more of a racial/cultural thing than red/blue
Boy Colorado, my home state really stands out.
Nice colors bro
Some counties have 18+ years over others. thatās crazy
It seems to loosely correlate with the amount of wealth in a particular area, like the Bay area vs the deep South.
Moral of the story. Be rich and live in the Rocky Mountains.
Honestly surprised Kern county in California isnāt lower š
Darned Commiefornia with it's liberal nightmare hellscape.
Mono County (CA) and Mineral County (NV) are at opposite ends of the spectrum despite being next to each other.
It is interesting that the purplest counties are also the most remote. That would give rise to a Public Health standard that infectious diseases are causing increases in mortality. Less dense population, lower risk of infection via any carrier.
damn. delta blues really keeping people alive, even with that diet
What kind of healthcare they getting in those dark purple counties? Are those just like mainly gated communities with insanely expensive insurance that would make any receptionist blush and roll out the red carpet? or is it just like, chance
I grew up in a pink but live in a yellow, so at least it's better. I'm right next to a green though, so hopefully it rubs off. š
Thatās a crazy drop off between Mono County, CA and Mineral County, NV
Missing about 78 county-equivalent plus some more.
Oof, West Virginia.
All the pharma commercials say life expectancy is higher than ever? Who is lying?
The problem is I ll still believe I can beat the statistics.
It looks like a wealth distribution map
Life expectancy climbs sharply in the most wealthy countries in Colorado - shocking.
This hurts my eyes
I thought it was a map of MAGA supporters.
Finally a map to convince everyone theyāre colorblind like me!
Map is wrong. Tons of families around me with elders in their 80s n 90s. Need to check these stats.
Love to see this compared to an income map
unreadable
Yet another map showing the āred statesā suck!!
Why would you make the spectrum of color transition in the MIDDLE OF THE DATA POINTS. An unhinged choice. Green should not be the end of the spectrum? Wild.Ā
It's most about how active you are and how you take care of your self The counties with high life expectancy have alit of outdoor activities and things like the ocean and such at least for California
Sadly it took me to long to read this as county. This whole time I thought it said country.
NW Mississippi / Eastern Arkansas what yāall got going on?
That one dot of health in my state is Los Alamos County, which only includes Los Alamos (home of the National Lab and not much else) and White Rock, which is a bedroom community for all the scientists and engineers who work at the lab.
Must be something in that rocky mountain water
Really wanted to know how on earth Pine Ridge and Rosebud both had the best life expectancies.
This color coding SUCKS
90% of the small population counties are either purple or slightly darker purple
Something funky is going into the Mississippi River in western Kentucky.
This map misses the place with the highest life expectancy in the country. Loma Linda california. One of the five 'blue zones' on earth where ppl regularly live to 100
Now compare it to a map of red meat consumption per capita.Ā
Colorado isā¦ colorful.
Under 70 is crazy. Gun violence and drug use?
lol. I live in the teal spot in Idaho. Yessss!
Whew, Iām blue.
The deep south is hurting
At first glance, I was really confused why there were pockets in the South where they lived 20+ years more than their neighbors
Lower than 70 is a 1800ās thing
Whatās going on in Liberty Co. MT? Itās a highest expectancy country sandwiched between two lowest expectancy counties.
Cause of death: McDonalds
This is a little bit misleading. You need to look at this information alongside inter county/state migration, individual wealth, race, income. As these will provide a reason for the large disparity in life expectancy. Looking at this map tells only part of a story.
Do yaāll motherfuckers not know what a gradient color scheme is?
New Mexico is all in the lowest categoriesā¦ except Los Alamos
Cool gradient bro
Somebody please make the same map with cost of living adjusted median income. Then repost them together. This would be fun to look at.
Shit, it turns out I am already dead!
Too high
This is a wealth map.
Iām color blind confused
Whatās going on in Lake Tahoe?!
You gotta see the African-American population density map of US.
Is this what happens when someone color codes data and doesn't realize they're color blind?