Wealthy Americans have death rates on par with poor Europeans

[LiberalArkie]

APR 3, 2025 5:18 PM

It's well-established that, on the whole, Americans die younger than people in most other high-income countries. For instance, an analysis from 2022 found that the average life expectancy of someone born in Switzerland or Spain in 2019 was 84 years. Meanwhile, the average US life expectancy was 78.8, lower than nearly all other high-income countries, including Canada's, which was 82.3 years. And this was before the pandemic, which only made things worse for the US.

Perhaps some Americans may think that this lower overall life-expectancy doesn't really apply to them if they're middle- or upper-class. After all, wealth inequality and health disparities are huge problems in the US. Those with more money simply have better access to health care and better health outcomes. Well-off Americans live longer, with lifespans on par with their peers in high-income countries, some may think.

It is true that money buys you a longer life in the US. In fact, the link between wealth and mortality may be stronger in the US than in any other high-income country. But, if you think American wealth will put life expectancy in league with Switzerland, you're dead wrong, according to a study in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A stark finding

The study, led by researchers at Brown University, found that the wealthiest Americans lived shorter lives than the wealthiest Europeans. In fact, wealthy Northern and Western Europeans had death rates 35 percent lower than the wealthiest Americans, whose lifespans were more like the poorest in Northern and Western Europe—which includes countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Snip

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/04/wealthy-americans-have-death-rates-on-par-with-poor-europeans/

[Celerity]

1. having lived in both the US and the EU/UK, this is hardly shocking

[LiberalArkie]

2. Maybe our GMO'd food and the hormone ladened meat?

Vegetables with no nutritional value. Corn made for ethanol not for nutrition. Meat that makes for big boobs in women and men and lower testosterone in men.

[Celerity]

3. I observed a massive lack of basic (walking about for instance) exercise amongst huge swathes of the US populace.

Here in Sweden you see a vastly greater amount of people (of all ages, including the very old) walking around. Plus the basic food habits here are far better (granted not as healthy as it was just 25 or more years ago).

[EverHopeful]

4. You've inspired me to search for some historical data

because on the Spanish side of my family, all the grands and great-grands lived longer than the other side of the family.

Agree the walking might play a big part in the longevity. My favorite great aunt moved back to Spain, she said, because my aunt-uncle-grandmother's suburban house was too far away from everything and back in Spain she could walk everywhere. She was 92 at the time.

Back when I was in my twenties, she ran me ragged at Disneyland. I kept suggesting we sit for a break but she wanted to keep going so she could see everything--in 1 day--you can't see all of Disneyland in 1 day but we saw more of it that day then I'd ever seen in 1 day before or since.

Makes me ashamed that I'll be hobbling along with my knee brace and cane for our local march tomorrow but I'll keep reminding myself of my beloved great aunt and the longevity disparity that we'd like to eliminate.