Proof of City’s Wholesomeness: New Yorkers Live Longer

New Yorkers continue to live longer than Americans as a whole by an increasingly wide margin, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Tuesday.

A New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth in 2010 was 80.9 years, 2.2 years longer than the national life expectancy in 2010 of 78.7 years, according to new data released by Mr. Bloomberg and the city health department. That is up from a 2.0-year lead the year before.

And across the board, the city’s blacks, whites, Hispanics, men and women, young and old continue to see their life spans increase, the data show. A black New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth has increased by nearly four years since 2001.

While Mr. Bloomberg has been accused of enacting nanny-like public health measures, he trumpeted his antismoking policies for helping to widen the life expectancy gap between the city, which has annually had record life-expectancy highs, and the United States. He also credited the city’s aggressive H.I.V. prevention measures, drops in traffic fatalities and violent crime, and a decline in the infant mortality rate.

“All New Yorkers should feel that we’ve done something wonderful together,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at the health department’s headquarters in Queens. “I didn’t do this. Everybody did it. Some people complained. There’s always some people who don’t like things. But together, the city supported these initiatives.”

Mr. Bloomberg said he believed that people who complain don’t live as long anyway. He and Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the health commissioner, encouraged people to move to New York if they wanted to live longer.

Other notable findings in the report:

–New Yorkers’ life-expectancy lead over the nation as a whole grew from 1 year in 2001 (77.9 years vs. 76.9 years) to 2 years in 2009 (80.6 years vs. 78.6 years) to 2.2 years in 2010.

–Hispanics in New York continue to have higher life expectancies than non-Hispanic blacks and whites, but their lead is narrowing. In 2001, Hispanic life expectancy at birth was 79.7 years, vs. 78.5 years for whites and 73.4 years for blacks. In 2010, the figures were 81.9 years for Hispanics, 81.4 for whites and 77.2 for blacks.

–Female New Yorkers are expected to live 83.3 years, compared to 81 years for female Americans as a whole. For males, it’s 78.1 years in New York vs. 76.2 years nationally.

–New York City’s infant mortality rate has decreased 23 percent since 2001. The national rate dropped 12 percent in that time.

–At age 40, New Yorkers can expect to live 42.3 more years.

–At age 70, New Yorkers can expect to live 17 more years, compared to 15.5 years for the country as a whole.

–The city’s H.I.V. infection rate is down 11.3 percent from 2009, and the city’s death rate from heart disease has decreased 27.1 percent from 2001.

Life expectancy figures are calculated using formulas based on current mortality rates and death probability estimates.