The average life expectancy of Miami-Dade citizens has skyrocketed in the past 20 years according to new data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. While, Miami women are expected to live six years longer than their male counterparts, men in the county have actually seen their life expectancy grow at a much faster rate than women in the past twenty years.
Miami-Dade also has a higher life expectancy than all but a few other counties in the state.
According to the latest numbers from 2009, male residents of Miami-Dade are expected to live 77.6 years. Back in 1989 men in the county were only expected to live 70.4 years. So that's a growth of 7.2 years in the past two decades.
Men's life expectancy lengthening at a faster rate than women's reflects a national trend, which seems to have hit the South the hardest.
"In 661 counties, life expectancy stopped dead or went backwards for women since 1999," reports the IMHE. "By comparison, life expectancy for men stopped or reversed in 166 counties. This troubling trend is occurring in 84% of Oklahoma counties, 58% of Tennessee counties, and 33% of Georgia counties."
Though, luckily Miami-Dade has continued to see its life expectancy grow for both sexes.
Female's life expectancy in the county is also much closer to the top than men's. Interestingly our neighbor to the west, Collier County, has the highest life expectancy for women in the entire country with a span of 85.8 years. Miami-Dade's is only 2.2 years behind that, giving us one of the higher life expectancy for women in the country. Male life expectancy is still four years behind the county with the highest life expectancy for that gender.
Miami-Dade however has a higher average life expectancy than Florida as a whole. Florida men are expected to live 76.5 years. Women are expected to live 82.1 years. Miami-Dade has the sixth highest life expectancy for men in Florida, and the fourth for women. Collier County is the only county in Florida that has seen their life spans increase at a faster rate for both genders than Miami-Dade in the past 20 years.
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