MISSOURI – When choosing where to live, many people consider quality of life and how long they might live. In Missouri, data shows that living near an urban area may offer advantages, though a few rural counties also stand out as surprising leaders in life expectancy.
AllThingsMissouri.org, a data platform powered by the University of Missouri Extension, features interactive maps that track health indicators by county. And it offers insight into one major source of data: Life expectancy.
According to the Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national average life expectancy, as of the latest available data from 2022, is 77.5 years. That is, with women averaging around 80.2 years and men around 74.8 years.
Some Missouri counties are exceeding that benchmark by several months, and in some cases, a lucky few are beating it by years.
Missouri’s Top 10 Counties for life expectancy
According to AllThingsMissouri.org, these are the state’s top 10 counties in life expectancy.
- Nodaway County (Northwest): 80. 2
- Platte County (Kansas City metro): 79.1
- St. Charles County (St. Louis metro): 79.1
- Andrew County (Northwest): 78.5
- Holt County (Northwest): 78.2
- Boone County (Mid-Missouri): 78.2
- Clay County (Kansas City metro): 78.0
- Osage County (Mid-Missouri): 77.9
- Cooper County (Mid-Missouri): 77.3
- Clark County (Northeast): 77.2
The Findings – Analysis
Perhaps surprising to some, more than half of the top-performing counties in life expectancy are in the northwest or mid-Missouri. Several top contenders just outside the Top 10 also came from both regions.
In the St. Louis metro, St. Charles County leads with a life expectancy of 79.1 years, followed by St. Louis County at 76.3. Nearby Jefferson, Lincoln and Warren counties all had life expectancies of at least 75. Meanwhile, life expectancy was much lower in the City of St. Louis, reported at 71.5.
In the Kansas City metro, Platte County and Clay County – both north of the city – made the Top 10. Jackson County, which includes most of Kansas City proper, had a life expectancy of 74.8 years.
In southern Missouri, particularly near the Arkansas border, life expectancy drops sharply. Dunklin, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Ripley counties all reported average life expectancies below 70 years. Pemiscot, located in the Missouri bootheel, had the lowest in the state at 65.6 years.
Additionally, most southern counties no directly neighboring Springfield or Cape Girardeau hovered closer to 70 than 80 in life expectancy.
With this in mind, the findings suggest that access to healthcare systems, educational institutions and urban centers appear to play a role in life expectancy. For instance:
- Northwestern counties, while rural, benefit from proximity to St. Joseph along with bordering states like Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.
- In mid-Missouri, Boone County (Columbia) is home to MU Health Care and nearby mid-Missouri counties close to the Lake of the Ozarks may benefit from the university-affiliated healthcare.
- Suburban counties like St. Charles, Christian, Platte and Clay often post higher life expectancies than their associated urban centers – St. Louis City, Green County (Springfield) and Jackson County (Kansas City).
While environment and access to healthcare access are significant, lifestyle habits matter too. The Harvard Medical School suggests behaviors like a healthy diet, regular physical activity, getting adequate sleep and avoiding smoking can also make a difference in a longer life.