Life expectancy at birth for the total population in 2006 was 77.7 years; 80.6 years for the Hispanic population, 78.1 years for the non-Hispanic white population, and 72.9 years for the non-Hispanic black population. The Hispanic population has a life expectancy advantage at birth of 2.5 years over the non-Hispanic white population and 7.7 years over the non-Hispanic black population.
This publication does not address the Asian population, but age-adjusted death rates for Asians have consistently been higher than for all other groups in the US for some time now. Thus, we see that groups dominated by immigrants have higher life expectancy than non-Hispanic whites or blacks. Some of this is almost certainly due to migration selectivity of healthier people, and some of it may be due to the less healthy returning to their country of origin to die, and thus not being picked up US vital statistics. There is concern, of course, that for the children of immigrants Americanization may be bad for their health and the life expectancy advantage will erode due to a fast food diet combined with a sedentary lifestyle. At the other end of the spectrum, the results highlight the continuing health disadvantage of blacks in America, and there is an emerging literature linking this to the stress associated with discrimination.
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