US college graduates live an average of 11 years longer than those who never finish high school

• Over the course of two decades, the lifespan of college graduates increased by 2.5 years to 84.2 years. If they were a country, their life expectancy would have ranked fourth globally.
• By contrast, the lifespan of those who didn’t earn a high school diploma remained at 73.5 years. If they were a country, their life expectancy would have ranked 137^th globally.

SEATTLE, Wash., Jan. 23, 2025 – Across more than 3,000 US counties, vast geographic differences with a widening gap were registered between the least and most educated, with a longer lifespan for those with a higher level of education. That’s according to the latest analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine that was published today in The Lancet Public Health journal.

The research found that the gap between the most and least educated was substantial and has increased over time, from eight years in 2000 to nearly 11 years in 2019. College graduates increased their lifespans by 2.5 years to 84.2 years. Those who completed some college increased their life expectancy (LE) by 0.7 years to 82.1 years. In contrast, high school graduates increased their lifespans by 0.3 years to 77.3 years, and those without a high school diploma saw no improvement in their LE, which remained 73.5 years.

“In the US, more formal education often translates to better employment opportunities, including higher-paying jobs that have fewer health risks,” said the study’s senior author and IHME Associate Professor Laura Dwyer-Lindgren. “This puts people in a better position to build a healthy life and, when needed, obtain high-quality health care.”

For all education groups combined, lifespans ranged from 68.2 to 93.2 years across counties. The variation across counties was largest for those who didn’t finish high school at 57.9 to 90.1 years, a difference of 32.2 years. The range across counties was smallest for college graduates at 75.2 to 93.9 years, a difference of 18.7 years. Simply put, college graduates in the county where LE was as high as 93.9 years are living 36 years longer than those who didn’t finish high school in the county where LE was 57.9 years. The disparities in LE across educational attainment populations and counties are large even on a global scale. For example, if US college graduates were a country, their life expectancy would have ranked fourth (out of 199 countries) globally in 2019. In contrast, those with less than a high school degree would have ranked 137^th.

Geographic disparities were large within and across levels of education. Counties in the Southeast, parts of Appalachia, and parts of South Dakota had relatively low LE, especially among those who didn’t finish high school. Among those who had some college education, certain counties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida, as well as in northern Arizona, had relatively large declines in LE. High school graduates in parts of Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Nebraska also experienced notably larger declines than most other counties. For those without a high school diploma, declines were especially large in parts of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

However, those who did not finish high school in California had large increases in LE while many other counties had declines. This may be related to the state’s large immigrant population. Immigrants often have longer life expectancy than their US-born counterparts, likely in large part due to the factors that shape who is able to immigrate to the US.

Female LE was generally higher than that of their male counterparts. Lifespan for females who didn’t finish high school was almost 72 years nationally, but for males it was almost 68 years. Additionally, the gaps in LE between the least educated and most educated were bigger and grew more for males than females during the 20 years studied.

IHME researchers were the first to study educational disparities in life expectancy (LE) for both sexes at age 25 in 3,110 counties from 2000 to 2019 for four educational levels covering those without high school diplomas, high school graduates, those with some college education, and college graduates.

***EMBARGO: 23:30 UK time / 18:30 ET / 15:30 PT Thursday 23 Jan. 2025***

Journalists can email IHMEMedia@UW.edu for embargoed interviews with the paper’s author. 

Journalists can access embargoed copies of the paper here:
https://cloud.ihme.washington.edu/s/DscekynYiiik39r

Journalists can also access embargoed datasets here: 
https://cloud.ihme.washington.edu/s/EMX83qdbtL4wQB8

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