Life Expectancy, Death Rates, Geography, and Black People

Abstract

Just as Black Americans have the lowest life expectancy and highest death rates among the many racial and ethnic groups in the United States, so also are Black Africans in Africa the racial group with the lowest life expectancy and highest death rates among all the nations of the world. This article presents a statistical world overview of the life expectancy and death rates of people of Black African descent.

Ethnicity, Nativity, and the Health of American Blacks

“…32 The current study builds on the study by Nazroo and colleagues 32 by examining nativity among Caribbean Blacks, in addition to comparing Caribbean Blacks with African Americans. While Caribbean Blacks have generally been found to have better health outcomes than African Americans, 33 disaggregating the group into U.S.-born and Caribbean-born provides a different picture. U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks were more likely to report poorer self-rated health though they did not differ on the likelihood of being diagnosed with a chronic medical condition.…”

“…32 African American men have shorter life expectancies than Caribbean Black men, and African American women have shorter life expectancies than Caribbean Black women. 33 The health advantages of immigrants, however, tend to diminish the longer immigrants live in the U.S. 17, 34-36 …”

“…33 Over 80% of nations in the Caribbean have an average life expectancy over 70 years. For example, the average life expectancy of Jamaicans is 76.3 years, four years higher than African Americans.…”

“…For example, the average life expectancy of Jamaicans is 76.3 years, four years higher than African Americans. 33 Nazroo and colleagues compared African Americans with Caribbean Blacks who live in the U.S. and England. 32 They found that African Americans reported worse self-rated health than Caribbean Blacks living in the U.S. and England.…”

Examining resources and their influence on developmental health outcomes in older African Americans

“…As people progress in age, they are expected to experience some decline in their physical and functional health status. However, the health outcomes and life expectancies for people of African descent have been found to be poorer than that of any other ethnic groups across the world (Kaba, 2009). In the United States, African Americans are at high risk for the development of multiple morbidities (National Center for Health Statistics, NCHS, 2012).…”