Life expectancy in Los Angeles County is 80.5 years, down 1.6 years from the previous report, according to findings from Measure of America, a program of the Social Science Research Council. The gap between the longest- and shortest-living communities is more than 16 years, with Westwood averaging 88.1 years and Sun Village in the Antelope Valley averaging 71.8 years. The report was driven largely by COVID, drug overdoses, and cardiovascular disease.
The Human Development Index (HDI), which combines life expectancy, educational attainment, and personal earnings, increased to 5.64 from 5.43 in the previous report—far short of a county goal set to raise L.A. County’s HDI by a full point. The report details disparities between wealthier communities, where life expectancy increased, and poorer ones, where it dropped. In every L.A. County neighborhood, a resident earning the local median salary would need to work more than 40 hours a week to afford median housing costs. In 31 neighborhoods, that figure exceeds 80 hours. No community in the county scored below 3.0 on the HDI in the 2026 report, an improvement from 2017 when six areas fell into that category.
Latinos saw the steepest decline in life expectancy of any major racial group, falling 3.7 years to 80.7 years. The report attributes this largely to COVID-19, noting that Latino Angelenos are disproportionately concentrated in frontline jobs and more likely to live in overcrowded, multigenerational households. Asian Angelenos have the longest life expectancy at 86.2 years, while Black Angelenos live to 72.9 on average, and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders to 71.2 years. Black mothers remain nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white or Asian women. The report’s data end in 2023, before the Palisades fire, ICE raids, and major federal funding cuts that researchers say will likely worsen the picture.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://us.headtopics.com/news/la-county-well-being-gap-80960510