Older people who earn less than $20,000 a year die nine years sooner on average than those who earn $120,000 or more.
That’s the conclusion of a new analysis that shows a strong connection between longevity and later in life earnings.
“These findings suggest that the more financial resources older adults have, the longer they live,” study authors wrote in the report by the National Council on Aging and the University of Massachusetts Boston’s LeadingAge Long-Term Services and Supports Center.
The report looked at data from the national Health and Retirement Study to assess the financial stability of Americans over the age of 60 and how it impacts their life expectancy outcomes.
The results line up with years of research showing that income and wealth are strong determining factors in life expectancy, said Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine professor of family medicine and population health Dr. Steven Woolf. And the problem is getting worse as income inequality in the United States grows, he said.
“This gap is widening. It’s always been true, but it’s a bigger deal now than it used to be,” Woolf told USA TODAY. “The results of (increasing income inequality) is that these gaps in life expectancy are getting larger.”
Many older Americans find themselves forced to make difficult financial choices, said Jessica Johnston, senior director for the Center for Economic Well-Being at the National Council on Aging. Should they spend their money on medication, food or housing?
“We’re not talking about luxuries here, we’re talking about 34 million households being on the brink of not being able to afford the basics, which feels not quite like the American dream that many of them signed up for when they were working hard and playing by the rules in their younger years,” Johnston said.
Older Americans can’t afford to live with ‘dignity,’ report finds
In addition to the profound gap in life expectancy between older Americans with high incomes and those with low incomes, the report found that the majority of people over 60 would struggle to withstand a sudden financial shock, which most will inevitably experience as they age.
A measure called the Elder Index sets forth the average cost of living for older adults to meet their basic needs, which can be higher than what’s expected for younger Americans due to costs associated with increasing health care needs or services like caregiving. About 45% of older adults in the United States don’t make enough to meet that threshold, the analysis found.
“Adequate income isn’t about comfort in retirement, this is really about survival for older adults,” Johnston said. They “can’t afford to age in dignity.”
More: Seniors are the only age group with growing poverty. It could get worse
Some older adults who can’t afford their basic caregiving needs turn to family members to fulfill that role, which has a negative impact on generational wealth, Johnston said.
Those who have no family to provide care and financial assistance may be forced to choose among basic needs like housing, food and doctors’ visits. Others will forego preventative health care or skip costly medications, negatively impacting their health, she said.
Some 80% of older adult households, about 34 million, don’t have the financial resources to weather a shock such as sudden widowhood, serious illness or need for long-term care.
Yet the report found most older adults will experience such a shock. Over a 20-year period, more than one in four Americans over 50 will experience a disruption that results in a drop of net wealth of 75% or more. For adults over 70, more than two-thirds will experience a financial shock over a nine-year period, the report said.
More: Low-income retirees leave $30 billion in aid on the table each year. How to not miss out
How your income and wealth can impact when you’ll die
Mortality rates among older Americans in the bottom 60% of wealth were nearly double those older adults in the top 20%, the analysis found.
Income is closely tied to other socioeconomic factors in determining longevity, Woolf said. For example, studies looking at life expectancy and race find that people of color tend to have shorter lifespans, he said. Value of assets, level of education, and even which zip code you live in are all tied together in determining life expectancy, Woolf said.
Lower-income Americans may be unemployed or underemployed, therefore lacking access to comprehensive health care coverage. They are then more likely to forego doctor’s visits or medications, Woolf said.
Low-income people also struggle to afford the healthy foods doctors recommend such as fresh produce, tending toward cheaper, higher-calorie options. Lower-income communities in so-called food deserts can lack grocery stores altogether, or green space like parks for children to get physical activity. They may live in unsafe housing conditions.
All these factors can spell shorter lifespans, he said.
More: $1.5M is a retirement ‘magic number.’ Here’s how long it lasts in every state.
In one US city, life expectancy varies drastically by neighborhood
That low-income older adults die on average nine years earlier than wealthy peers isn’t a shock to Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the commissioner of public health for the city of Boston.
Life expectancy there has a dramatic gap of about 23 years between residents in one of the lowest-income neighborhoods, Roxbury, which has a high proportion of Black residents, and the largely White neighborhood of Back Bay, just over 2 miles away. That’s according to an analysis published in 2023.
Roxbury residents from 2015 to 2021 had an average life expectancy of 68.8 years and a median income of $41,211. Back Bay residents in that time had an average lifespan of 91.6 years and a median income of $141,250.
The 23-year gap had shrunk by about 10 years from previous reports, but Ojikutu said the city hopes to close it entirely in the next decade, “to ensure that our residents do not have a life expectancy that is dependent upon neighborhood.”
Black men die 10 years earlier than other demographic groups, she said.
More: Too many older Americans are using credit cards to cover groceries and rent, report finds
To achieve its goal, Boston’s new Live Long and Well initiative focuses on residents’ entire lifespan, because poverty and longevity aredirectly impacted by factors experienced from birth, Ojikutu said.
“Health and wellness are directly correlated with the quality and quantity of the social determinants of health, like access to fresh and nutritious food, access to affordable and safe housing, access to quality education … access to good jobs and economic mobility,” she said.
“It’s building that foundation throughout life so that when you get to an older age, you have wealth, you have had opportunities and have the ability to weather shocks.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Poverty for older adults can steal nearly a decade of life: Study
