The average life expectancy for a baby born in New York City in 2010 is now 80.9 years, three years longer than when Mayor Michael Bloomberg first took office, according to the New York Post.
“When you talk about 8.4 million people in New York City living three years longer than they did 10 years ago, it is just one of the great improvements in life expectancy ever found on the face of the Earth,” Bloomberg said at a press conference at the Health Department, according to the paper.
The national average is 78.7 years, and Bloomberg credits a longer life in NYC to his health policies such as smoking bans and curbing oversized sodas.
“The risk factors for those are things we’ve been working on: smoking, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, city health commissioner, according to the paper. “That says that something we’re doing is working.”
As for the factor of race, African Americans are living to an average of 77.2 years – up from 73.4 years in 2001 – while whites are living to an average of 81.4 years, and Hispanics to 81.9 years.
