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Does Zip Code Matter to Our Life Expectancy?
What’s in the History:
Zip Code and Our Home Life
Mail was primarily the communication method to inform American troops about their home life. In 1943, during WW II, the Post Office implemented postal zoning, which evolved into the modern zip code system in 1963. The term “ZIP” stands for Zone Improvement Plan. It is a basic format consisting of 5 digits, which allows mail sorting to become faster and can eventually be automated.
What’s in the News:
“Life Expectancy in the U.S. Declined 1.8 years in 2020, CDC says” — The Wall Street Journal.
Region and Life Expectancy
The journal report not only pointed out that life expectancy decline remains the most significant drop since World War II but also shows our life expectancy correlated with cause-specific mortality.
At the beginning of this pandemic, people focused intensively on where this virus originated. This region-emphasized topic made me wonder if our geographic location also impacts our life expectancy.
What are the facts?
Fact 1: seeing our health and wealth through “Factfulness.”
Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician, tells us a human progress story through his book Factfulness. According to his book, he thinks our life expectancy is directly associated with our income level, not necessarily related to our geographic area.
Rosling has his point, yet I was only partially convinced. When I looked closer at this map, it was apparent some people lived longer in other regions, even with the same income level. For example, within the same income level, people in Japan have a life expectancy of 85 years compared to people in the U.K., who only have a life expectancy of 81 years. The United States has a higher income level than Japan and the U.K., yet its average life expectancy was only about 78 years old.
