Where Does New York Rank Among the Country For Overall Health?

You may wonder with news of obesity, heart disease, or the COVID pandemic just how healthy the area you're living in really is? After all, we hear how the average life expectancy across the U.S. has dropped for two straight years.  And while the news sometimes can sound bleak, maybe things are worse elsewhere?

How healthy is the state of New York?

According to the CDC's data from 2020, the average life expectancy rate in the state of New York is 77.7 years. The national average is around 76.1 years. The CDC says that New York saw the sharpest drop in life expectancy (80.7) from 2019 to 2020, largely due to COVID-19 and drug overdoses.

Are We Healthy or Unhealthy? 

Forbes Advisor recenlty took a look at the data, using numbers from  the Kaiser Family Foundation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forbes analyzed metrics from three key categories: disease prevalence and mortality rate, substance abuse, and lifestyle habits and health outlook.

And while the report by Forbes says that New Yorkers have a fairly high rate of cancer, compared to other states (around 617 per 100,000 state residents), our overall score was one of the better ones. Forbes says that New York ranked 9th in the country for health.

See Also: Have Residents Living in New York State Gotten Fatter?

Massachusetts was 5th, Connecticut 8th, New Jersey 10th, and Vermont 13th. Hawaii was the healthiest, and West Virginia ranked last

Is New York a Safe State? 

According to one study, the state, as a whole, isn't so bad after all. In fact, according to ConsumerAffairs, eight of the top ten safest states in the country are in the Northeast. New Jersey even topped the list at #1.

Safety Study 

ConsumerAffairs said that they took into account violent crime, property crime, the number of law enforcement officers, and law enforcement spending using data from the FBI and Census Bureau. Overall, New York ranked as the eighth safest state to live in, according to the methodology they used.