Thislist of U.S. counties with longest life expectancy includes 51 counties, and county equivalents, out of a grand total of 3,142 counties or county equivalents in theUnited States. Most of the counties where people live longest are either sparsely populated or well-to-do suburbs of large cities. Forty-seven of the counties listed have a population of which the largest racial component is non-Hispanic whites. Two have populations of which Hispanics are the majority. Asian Americans make up the largest component of two counties.^[1]

Counties with the longest life expectancy are located in 21 states:Colorado (11);California andIowa (5);Nebraska (4);North Dakota,Virginia, andMinnesota (3);Alaska,New York, andNew Jersey (2), andTexas,New Mexico,Wyoming,Florida,Michigan,South Dakota,Idaho,Maryland,Utah,Wisconsin, andOregon (one each).^[1]

The residents of three adjacent counties in the high-elevationRocky Mountains of Colorado have the longest life expectancy.^[2][1]

Among all the counties in the US, there is a wide range in life expectancy from birth. The residents ofSummit County, Colorado, live the longest with a life expectancy of 86.83 years. The residents ofOglala Lakota County (formerly Shannon County) ofSouth Dakota live the shortest, with a life expectancy of 66.81 years—twenty years less.^[3]

The gap between the counties with the longest life expectancy and the shortest is widening. US life expectancy increased by more than 5 years between 1980 and 2014. The life expectancy of most of the longest-lived counties equaled or exceeded that increase. The life expectancy of most of the shortest-lived counties increased less than 5 years—and in a few counties, especially in Kentucky, life expectancy decreased.^[3]

A study published in theJournal of the American Medical Association in 2016 concluded that income was a major component of the difference in life expectancy in states, counties, races, and regions of the U.S.. Men in the richest one percent of the population lived 15 years longer than men in the poorest one percent of the population and women in the richest one percent of the population lived 10 years longer.^[4]

• List of U.S. states and territories by life expectancy
• List of U.S. counties with shortest life expectancy
• List of U.S. states by changes in life expectancy, 1985–2010
• List of U.S. congressional districts by life expectancy
• List of North American countries by life expectancy

• United States demography-related lists
• United States health-related lists
• United States-related lists of superlatives
• Life expectancy

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from April 2025