• Posted November 11, 2024

Report Finds Big Disparities in Americans' Well-Being by Region

Americans’ well-being varies widely between different regions of the nation, a new study reports.

People in the southern U.S., Appalachia and the Rust Belt states score lowest on the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure that includes a population’s life expectancy, education and income, researchers report in The Lancet.

The highest levels of well-being occur among people living in parts of Colorado, Maryland, New York, California, Virginia and Washington, D.C., researchers said.

“As a new federal administration prepares to take actions aimed at solving the most pressing economic, social, and health issues the US population faces, this study underscores the urgent need for action by policymakers, educators, and public health experts,” senior researcher Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a news release.

“IHME’s findings further emphasize the critical need to develop highly targeted social programs to dismantle deep-rooted structural inequalities in the US,” Murray added.  

The United Nations Development Program created the HDI as a measure to help track well-being between nations, researchers said in background notes.

For this study, U.S. researchers adapted the HDI to gauge well-being based on years of education, household income and life expectancy estimates.

Overall, the average U.S. HDI increased gradually from 2008 to 2019, then declined in 2020 due to decreases in lifespan linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found.

Researchers focused on the 10% of the U.S. population that had the lowest HDI scores, and found that group contained:

• 4 in 10 Black men.

• 1 in every 2 American Indian/Alaska Native men.

• 1 in 4 American Indian/Alaska Native women.

• 21% of Latino men.

• About 8% of white men.

However, white men made up the largest number of people among those with the lowest well-being, representing 27% of the segment overall, researchers said. That’s because the white population is the nation's largest racial and ethnic group.

The findings also show that certain groups of younger Americans are struggling.

White men made up just 5% of the highest HDI segment among those aged 25 to 44, results show. That number dramatically increased to 49% among those 85 and older.

“The disparities highlighted in our study are not merely statistics but a call for action, highlighting the long-term societal consequences of ignoring these gaps, particularly among the most affected groups and regions,” lead researcher Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, an associate professor with the IHME, said in a news release.

“Historical, systemic inequalities in access to opportunities must be addressed to reduce economic and social inequalities and ensure a healthier, more inclusive future for all,” Dwyer-Lindgren concluded.  

Asian Americans and white women are most likely to experience the highest levels of well-being in the U.S., researchers found.

Asian American women had the nation's longest expected lifespan of 88 years, while American Indian/Alaska Native and Black men have the shortest, 77 years.

In every racial group, women lived longer than men, researchers found.

The findings were published Nov. 7.

More information

The United Nations has more on the Human Development Index.

SOURCE: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, news release, Nov. 7, 2024