Educated Americans live longer, as others die younger

A college degree is becoming the main factor accounting for the difference in expected lifespans

Graphic detail Mar 17th 2021

A 25-YEAR-OLD American with a university degree can expect to live a decade longer than a contemporary who dropped out of high school. Although researchers have long known that the rich live longer than the poor, this education gap is less well documented—and is especially marked in rich countries. And whereas the average American’s expected span has been flat in recent years—and, strikingly, even fell between 2015 and 2017—that of the one-third with a bachelor’s degree has continued to lengthen.

This disparity in life expectancy is growing, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using data from nearly 50m death certificates filed between 1990 and 2018, Anne Case and Angus Deaton of Princeton University analysed differences in life expectancy by sex, race, ethnicity and education. They found that the lifespans of those with and without a bachelor’s degree started to diverge in the 1990s and 2000s. This gap grew even wider in the 2010s as the life expectancy of degree-holders continued to rise while that of other Americans got shorter.

As educational gaps in mortality have widened, racial gaps have narrowed. In 1990 a white 25-year-old without a degree could still expect to outlive a similarly aged black college graduate. Today, however, well-educated white and black Americans have moved closer to one another in life expectancy, and pulled away from poorly educated people of their own races. The authors estimate that over the past 30 years, as racial disparities in life expectancy have shrunk by 70%, educational disparities have more than doubled.

What is the link between schooling and longevity? Some argue that better-educated people develop healthier lifestyles: each additional year of study reduces the chances of being a smoker and of being overweight. The better-educated earn more, which in turn is associated with greater health. Ms Case and Mr Deaton argue that changes in labour markets, including the rise of automation and increased demand for highly-educated workers, coupled with the rising costs of employer-provided health care, have depressed the supply of well-paid jobs for those without a degree. This may be contributing to higher rates of alcohol and drug use, suicide and other “deaths of despair”.

Much has been made of the recent fall in America’s life expectancy. After climbing steadily for five decades, the average expected lifespan reached a plateau in about 2010. It dipped from 2015 to 2017; in the same period, the lifespan of a white college graduate increased by three months. (The average expected lifespan recovered slightly in 2018.) The authors reckon that the educational divide in mortality will widen in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. For America’s overall life expectancy to start climbing again, improvements will be needed across all social groups, not just among the privileged few.

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