SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 29, 2007 — A black man in California can expect to live 68.6 years on average, far less than the life expectancy of the average California white male, who can expect to live 75.5 years. This is the opening statistic in a new study released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
Black men in California live far fewer years than men in all other major racial and ethnic groups. The average life expectancy for all males in the state is 75.9 years. However, for a black male, it is 68.6 years, compared to 75.5 for whites, 77.5 for Hispanics, and 80.4 for Asians. The historical perspective is also cause for concern: Although one of the great accomplishments of the 20th century was enormous improvement in health and longevity, there has been no sustained reduction in the gap between black-white life expectancy in the United States since the end of World War II.
Differences in causes of death account for much of the disparity. Heart disease is responsible for the largest difference in life expectancy between black and white men (30%), followed by homicide (12%). Although eliminating these two causes of death would reduce the male white-black gap by more than 40 percent, blacks—both men and women—still have higher death rates than whites for nearly all chronic illnesses and injuries.
The disparities between women are not as large, and women enjoy longer life expectancies than men across all groups. Nevertheless, the average black woman in California can still expect to live five fewer years than the average white woman.
The black-white gap also defies some conventional wisdom. “One of the most troubling things is that this gap persists even among people with similar education levels,” says PPIC research fellow Helen Lee, who co-authored the study with PPIC research associate Shannon McConville. “Different socioeconomic characteristics have long been tied to differences in mortality; here, we have to ask if something else is responsible.”
Although not nearly as pronounced, mortality rates differ across other racial and ethnic groups and are also primarily driven by disparate causes of death. Overall, Hispanics and Asians have slightly longer life expectancies than whites, and this advantage is driven mostly by lower death rates from diseases such as cancers, chronic lower respiratory disease, and heart disease. Hispanics and Asians would have an even larger advantage if they were not more susceptible to other diseases. For example, Hispanic men would have a 30 percent higher mortality advantage over white men if diabetes and liver disease/cirrhosis of the liver were eliminated. Diabetes also lowers the advantage for Hispanic women, who are nearly two and a half times more likely than white women to die of the disease.
“Clear racial and ethnic patterns emerge for many conditions,” says Lee. “A more detailed understanding of the patterns could help health officials develop strategies that both target the leading causes of death and reduce disparities between groups.” A selection of findings from the study, Death in the Golden State: Why Do Some Californians Live Longer?, reveals the varied and complex landscape of mortality:
- Diabetes death rates are about twice as high for Hispanic men and women as for their white counterparts. The diabetes death rate for black women is three times higher than for white women.
- Death rates from heart disease are approximately 40 percent higher among black men, and 50 percent higher among black women, than they are among whites.
- HIV infection ranks in the top ten causes of death for black and Hispanic men. It is also the 11th leading cause of death for black women, compared to the 29th for white women.
- The homicide death rate for black men is nearly 10 times higher, and for Hispanic men nearly two and a half times higher, than it is for white men.
- If black men reach age 25, their mortality gap with white men shrinks by more than one year due largely to a decline in homicide deaths after that age.
- Asian men have slightly higher death rates than other groups from stroke and stomach cancer.
- Asian women have the longest life expectancy rates. At 85.2 years, they can expect to live, on average, more than 15 years longer than black men.
- White men and women are more likely than any other groups to die of Alzheimer’s disease and suicide.
The Public Policy Institute of California is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues. The institute was established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett.