Durham Neighborhood CompassDurham Neighborhood Compass

Why This is Important

Health, as defined in the 2018 book Healing Our Divided Society, is "the state of physical, mental, spiritual and socio-economic well-being of the individual and thus their community, not simply the absence of disease or infirmity". And the Constitution of the World Health Organization states that "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition."

Average age of death is equivalent to life expectancy at birth. It has been widely reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that people living in different ZIP Codes can expect to have different life expectancies. But ZIP codes cover large areas that mask more local variations across neighborhoods. A study led by Raj Chetty - which analyzed deidentified records for every person with a valid Social Security number between 1999 and 2014 - documented how income influences longevity, with the life expectancy gap between the wealthiest 1% and the poorest 1% in the United States being 14.6 years.

About the Data

The average age of death here is reported for 2009 (reflecting records from 2005-2009) and 2014 (reflecting records from 2010-2014).

Source: North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics

Additional Resources

ResourceLearn More and Take Action
Durham County Network of CareThe Durham Network of Care provides comprehensive information on local services and organizations and a Learning Center dedicated to topics related to health and well-being, as well as the ability to create a confidential and secure Personal Health Record to keep information on helpful services, contacts and your medical history.
Healing Our Divided SocietyThe Eisenhower Foundation's 50th anniversary update to the 1968 Kerner Commission report, which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described at the time as a "physician's warning of approaching death, with a prescription for life."
Centers for Disease Control and PreventionThe CDC is a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services. This link leads to their current FastStats on life expectancy.
North Carolina State Center for Health StatisticsNorth Carolina's state government resource for interactive health stats, reports and vital records.
Census TractsCensus Blockgroups

Select a base geography (depending on the dataset, different geographies may be available).

Or, select a, or

Data Distribution, 2014

Average Age of Death

CountySelected
Share feedback or questions