Life expectancy can be a complicated statistic. Lifestyle plays an important role, as does genetics. But environmental factors are at play, too, and data-driven news outlet Stacker has determined how those factors affect Georgia residents on a county level.
While the country is experiencing an average life expectancy of around 77.5 years, every state has been affected by the varying health factors of the past years differently. According to the CDC’s latest state data, Georgia had an even lower rate than the five-year-low national average of 75.6 years in 2020.
To determine the 2024 life expectancy of Georgia’s counties, Stacker analyzed data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps and from the National Vital Statistics System, omitting any counties with insufficient data. In total, the rankings featured 49 of Georgia’s 159 counties, offering a snapshot of how the state’s health is shaping up this year.
According to the results, Miller County has the lowest life expectancy in Georgia at 67.7 years. Quitman County was just behind at 68.6 years, with Ben Hill and Candler counties tied at 69.6 years. Finishing out the bottom five, Clinch County had an expectancy of 69.8 years.
The counties with the greatest life expectancies were still well below the national average, with Coffee County leading the state at 72.4 years. Sumter (72.4), Muscogee (72.3), Randolph (72.3) and Haralson counties (72.3) finished out the top five.
According to Data USA, Georgia’s highest ranking county (Coffee) had a 62.5% better patient-to-clinician ratio than the Peach State’s lowest ranked county (Miller). Coffee clinicians also saw 8.08% fewer patients year over year, compared to just a 1.68% decrease in Miller.
While life expectancy is influenced by several factors, a 2019 study published in the journal JAMA discovered local average life expectancy increases by around 51.5 days for every 10 additional primary care physicians per 100,000 people in a population.
According to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, poverty can also play a significant role. A 2016 study published in JAMA discovered that people within the top 1% U.S. income bracket lived between 10.1 and 14.6 years longer than those within the bottom 1%. In Miller County, 4.5% of the population lives under the poverty line.
Although Fulton County did not report sufficient data for the rankings, the county averaged a life expectancy of 79.6 years in 2022 — according to U.S. News and World Report.
The pandemic led to drops in life expectancy nationwide. According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it plummeted by nearly a full year in 2021. Before the 0.9-year dip in 2023, the country experienced an even larger 1.8-year drop in 2020. Going into 2022, the U.S. faced a 76.1-year expectancy — the lowest since 1996.
In 2022, the country saw a comeback with a heartier 77.5 expectancy. According to the Peterson Center on Healthcare, America’s morbid statistic remains well below prepandemic levels, continuing to fall behind other wealthy, developed countries.
“U.S. life expectancy growth in 2022 was mostly driven by a decline in COVID-19 mortality,” the center reported. “Still, COVID-19 erased nearly two decades of life expectancy progress in the U.S., becoming similar to 2004 estimates, whereas the average life expectancy for comparable countries is down only marginally, to 2018 levels.”
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