No- It's not a political map - It's a life expectancy map

[packman]

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R...nt

[OnDoutside]

2. Wow, that's stunning. It's a pity that this isn't vocalised.

[Ocelot II]

3. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

[electric_blue68]

4. As far as The South goes it's probably a mix of ...

poorer whites including anti-vaxxers, and Black people in general ☹️ who often receive inferior care than white people!

[Beautiful Disaster]

6. It's likely just rural people in general in the South.

[Grins]

29. Ever been to upstate NY? Maine? Vermont? Parts of NJ?

A lot of rural there, too.

[Beautiful Disaster]

42. Hence why I said South.

I'm guessing rural Mississippi is far, far poorer than rural Vermont.

[Mopar151]

48. In simple terms, Mississippi is poor in more than money. nt

[Mopar151]

44. Just cuz you live out of town, dunnt' make you stupid...

Us hillbillies in the 603 and the 802 have world class teaching hospitals, colleges including Ivy League Dartmouth, bleeding edge niche technologies and great craftsmen at every wide spot in the road.

[Beautiful Disaster]

51. Yup. I don't think many realize Dartmouth, an Ivy League, is in rural NH

I think people just assume all those ivy league schools have urban campuses.

Rural Vermont and New Hampshire, hell even rural New York, is lightyears different than rural Arkansas or Mississippi.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. I was going to guess Southern cooking ... all those deep-fried whatevers ...

the blue spot in the middle of AL is likely due to the UAB Medical Center. The white spot is Madison Co., which also has a premier hospital system.

Easy to pick out Atlanta and Nashville as well, probably for similar reasons.

[RainCaster]

5. Something is missing

I would like to see maps with education, income and local government party affiliation.

[SharonClark]

8. I suspect education and income.

Politically red Iowa is mostly blue on this map.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. I think some western counties with lowest avg may have First Nation peoples or particular industries

First Nation populations shunned and abused by neighboring counties and state governments and elected representatives at the federal level.

Alternatively or additionally, there are some western counties downwind of chemical refining / smelting plants or house massive meat processing plants that have higher death rates.

[MartyTheGreek]

7. Please expand. Covid? Years? Link?

We can see the Southern states but need some data to back it up. Thank you!

[packman]

11. For your own research since the map isn't enough for some

https://ghdx.healthdata.org/search/site/life%20expentency

[Hekate]

34. Adding a link is always a help in understanding something like this, so thank you

[MartyTheGreek]

40. Then it's only click bait! n/t

[David__77]

9. That shading scale isn't right.

It’s basically grouping wide bands of life expectancy under the same shade rather smoothly changing color grade along the axis. That could be overstating the average discrepancy.

[DURHAM D]

10. What is up with Nevada? nt

[hatrack]

14. Low-population, isolated hardscrabble counties with limited medical infrastructure

Jobs probably have something to do with it as well - mining and ranching, maybe some limited irrigated farming, depending on location. All three are hazardous occupations.

[VGNonly]

32. Nye County NV

the large red area on the map. Only has about 52,000 people, they're no incorporated cities. Third largest county by area in the contiguous US.

[GusBob]

12. Umm pretty sure for some places

except Menominee county Wisconsin which is an Indian Rez, pretty sure could apply to montana, the dakotas, alaska, oklahoma and other places as well

Native Americans vote blue, but unfortunately have shorter life spans

[plimsoll]

20. Absolutely! Washington if you know what to look for.

First thing that came to mind. I suspect it's also a poverty map, and it's absolutely a rural health care quality map.

[geardaddy]

55. This!

[moniss]

13. Thanks for the great

map. There are some telltale things the map reveals beyond the obvious north/south difference. If you look at Wisconsin for example you see an area of extreme low expectancy that stands out. That is the location of the Menomonie Reservation. If you look at South Dakota in the southwest of the state you see the area of the Pine Ridge reservation. In the north central area are the Cheyenne and Standing Rock reservations. Then comes Nebraska where that spot in the northeast are the reservations of the Winnebago and the Omaha. Health resources/access for indigenous people is a disgrace in this country.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. There is a crisis in access to health care in this country.

[Midnight Writer]

18. And Republicans are against expanding access to health care.

How many of these "red" states turned down Medicaid expansion, just to make a point?

How many of these "red" areas have no hospitals or clinics because they are not profitable? Republicans are fine with that.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

37. Yep. Funny how the OP's map, abortion bans, slavery 1861, and political maps all align so well.

Need an economy map and education map, to see how they align.

[Midnight Writer]

49. The economic development of these areas in history is key to understanding them today.

The Slave States depended on agriculture for their economies. Plantation owners (the rich) did not want their slaves and indentured labor to be educated beyond what they needed to perform basic farm work. Educated workers were harder to keep "down on the farm".

In the Free States, manufacturing was the key to their economies. They needed educated workers who could read and understand instructions, who could carry out complex tasks, who could operate and maintain machinery, who could innovate and make decisions.

In both cases, labor was the key to success. But in the Slave States, they considered it an advantage to keep labor poor and oppressed. In the Free States, there was competition for educated and skilled labor. It was an advantage for the rich to pay workers better and treat them better to keep them on the job.

That heritage influences our current day. The tradition in Slave States was to have a wealthy class, and a terribly exploited class to serve them. Thus, there is little regard for the welfare of labor and the working poor. They were interchangeable cogs in the economic machine.

In contrast, the workers in the Free States had power, even more so when they organized. The result is better wages, better working conditions, and better living conditions. The workers are themselves a major part of the economy, and they are in a position to demand better overall treatment.

[barbtries]

17. very interesting.

in Florida republicans apparently live to a ripe old age. everywhere else it seems to mirror the politics.

[plimsoll]

23. Arizona?

Looks like the Reservations or Native American populations get the dusty rose.

[Beacool]

21. Wow!!!

The lowest life expectancy seems to be concentrated in the South and Alaska. The three main factors in the deep South are poverty, an overly rich diet and processed foods, and no access to quality healthcare. Alaska I think is due to alcoholism.

[33taw]

22. What criteria was used in collecting the data?

I find the site a bit cumbersome.

[Hekate]

35. Excellent question. First thing that came to me was that it confirms all my own biases...

Second thing that came to me was that confirmation bias was not enough without knowing the source of the data.

[33taw]

52. There is a source link. The site is a little confusing.

[packman]

60. See post #11

[liberal N proud]

24. Lucky I live in the one Dark Blue county in South Carolina

Mostly people who migrated from the blue states

[VGNonly]

41. Beaufort County?

My RW sister and BIL live in Hilton Head about half the year. The snooty level is off the charts.

[liberal N proud]

54. It's quite the mix here

Between the snooty and the old south. It’s terrifying and it’s comical

[VGNonly]

56. My sister is starting

to gain a slight southern accent, even though she's spent 98% of her whole life in Ohio.

She just loves Paula Deen, the butter queen!

[liberal N proud]

62. That place is a huge tourist trap

And the food is not that good.
So many other places to catch good southern food.

[markodochartaigh]

25. Ironic

A big reason why South Florida has longer lifespans is because the healthiest retirees retire here. The people who can afford the healthiest food, who can afford exercise classes daily, who have been able to afford good health care. The poorer people who couldn't afford a higher quality diet, who weren't able to avail themselves of company paid gym memberships, these people are far less able to afford retirement in Florida. Of course, DeSantis wanted to separate out retirees who spend only part of their year in Florida in order to lower covid death numbers.

[FakeNoose]

26. Look at Florida - why aren't more Floridians voting blue?

I think this is a reflection on the quality of elder health care that's available sporadically.
Not all areas, but as a general indicator.

Another factor is that the deaths of younger people - for drug use, dangerous occupations, risky hobbies, etc. - lower the life expectancy overall. Once Americans get past the age of risky behavior (probably 50 for many of us) then the rest of us can hope to make it into our late 70's or early 80's. Of course Covid has changed all of that, but that's a story for another day.

[uponit7771]

27. That map **INCLUDES** counties outside of AA dense areas ... jus damn

[WarGamer]

47. THis map perfectly matches a WEALTH MAP.

Wealthy counties have longer lifespans.

[uponit7771]

58. +1,

[Dan]

63. Curious, can you trust the 2020 Census information?

[uponit7771]

64. +1,

[Deep State Witch]

28. Is this Pre or Post COVID?

It might skew the results a bit.

[packman]

36. See post #11

[33taw]

50. I reviewed the site link, but did not see the

report parameters. It looks like they only have data up to 2019.

[NQAS]

30. Like everything else about this demographic....

They wouldn’t understand it or believe it. And their information sources would repeat ad nauseum that it’s a Democrat lie. We’re living on different planets.

[The_Casual_Observer]

31. Dixie!

[Renew Deal]

33. What's going on in Thurston County, NE?

Is there a toxic waste dump there or something?

[GopherGal]

39. Native American Reservations

Last edited Tue Nov 8, 2022, 07:12 PM - Edit history (1)

per post 15 above, similar to other states, these populations tend to have lower life expectancies.
Edit: It's actually post 16 above.

[Renew Deal]

57. That's sad to hear

Thanks

[IronLionZion]

38. Are conservatives dying younger?

because I find that hard to believe. Where is the source data from?

[WarGamer]

46. ignore the political aspect of the map... it's poverty.

[IronLionZion]

53. That makes more sense, affording healthcare can extend one's life

[ProfessorPlum]

43. The Republican Party is the party of death

[WarGamer]

45. It's not politics, directly...

This map overlays PERFECTLY with an American WEALTH MAP.

Anyone surprised that Coastal California Counties lead the way?

And the lowest life expectancy are the Indian reservations and the poverty stricken areas around the Mississippi Delta?

In the USA... the wealthy live longer. PERIOD.

[GopherGal]

61. Wealth/Politics/Health all intertwined in our society

I produced a similar map for a statistics class over a decade ago. The input dataset was causes of death by state and the assignment was to run some clustering algorithms. When I was all done, I compared the clusters to the results of the 2008 presidential election, and it lines up frighteningly well. Haven't looked at it in years, but I do remember a couple things. The western states with low population density had high rates of death by accidents (likely due to more miles traveled by car, but I should have looked at gun accidents, as well). There were also clusters with higher cancer rates (didn't really look at environmental protection laws, should have looked at smoking rates), and there were what later came to be known as "deaths of despair" - addiction. The different causes can carry with them a relationship to age of demise, so it makes some sense that the life expectancy would have a similar relationship to political factors.

[Faux pas]

59. Not

surprised AT ALL. Survival of the...smartest