Minnesota men and women rank No. 2 for life expectancy among the states, and Stearns County is at the top in Minnesota for both genders, according to a new county-by-county analysis released Thursday.
In Stearns County, life expectancy for males born in 2009 is 79.4 and for females is 84.6, the annual report shows. For all of Minnesota, life expectancy for males born in 2009 is 78.5, up 4 years since 1989, while longevity for women was gauged at 83.3, up 2.3 years.
The analysis done to help local officials see how they stack up and to take action if life expectancy among their residents is shorter, typically a result of economic and lifestyle issues, the authors said.
Nationwide, women's lifespans are improving at a much slower pace than men, and in hundreds of U.S. counties women are living shorter lives today than they did two decades ago, according to new estimates of life expectancy released Thursday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
Read about the study at Startribune.com. Read more here about life expectancy in every county and every state for 1989, 1999, 2009.
--WARREN WOLFE
