The Life Expectancy In New York City Has Dropped 3% Because This City Steals Your Mind, Body And Soul Every Single Day

New data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Tuesday showed New York experienced the largest drop in life expectancy in the nation for its residents in 2020. 

The life expectancy for New Yorkers dropped by 3% from an average age of 80.7 in 2019 to 77.7 in 2020. 

The shocking 3-year drop represented the sharpest decrease between the years out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the CDC’s new National Vital Statistics Report. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Hawaii saw the smallest decline in life expectancy in 2020 – just .2% from 80.9 years to 80.7 years.

We finally did it, New York. We've finally bitched, moaned, lamented and excused enough behavior to lower the life expectancy rate. If you live here, you don't even have to see your 80th birthday if you don't want to. 

I'm coming up on my 9th anniversary living in the city. I'm one of those people who says things like: 

"Oh, you got hit by a car? That's NYC baby!" 

"You think YOUR rent is expensive? Check New York! Best city in the world!"

"Oh, you can't breathe because the smell of hot garbage and urine is suffocating you as you walk down the street? EMPIRE STATE OF MIND!" 

But even I've got to say - it's getting out of hand. Specifically the garbage. I never look forward to summer ending, but something about the city's trash efforts this year is quite literally taking years off of my life. I can't even open my window in my bedroom because its next to the alleyway of garbage. And my apartment? It's certainly not "nice," it's a tiny one bedroom (keyword tiny) and a fourth floor walk up. No dishwasher, no laundry in the building, my packages get stolen on a regular basis, and I'm still begging them not to double my rent and let me stay at least another year. It's nice to be validated at least? It's comforting to know that it's not just me, losing valuable years in my 80s to experiment with highly addictive drugs, it's the whole city. We're all beaten down. 

I do wonder though, are we including Covid numbers in this statistic? Cuomo killed a bunch of old people in all of the nursing homes, who I'd imagine were all 70+ years old, which I guess could fudge the numbers a little bit. It seems like a lot of this data dates back to 2020, so it's very plausible in my mind. Maybe the people in my age group will shatter these numbers and live forever?

I also love how they throw in the Hawaii statistics, too. Oh, you live longer when you get to hike beautiful mountains in the bright sunshine, surf at lunch, dance with grass skirts around a fire at night? No shit. Hawaii is vacation. I don't care if you live there full time, it's a state of mind. I feel that way about LA and San Diego - I don't know how anyone lives in a beautiful place and gets anything productive done. I know for a fact I'd live to be 105 if I got to sit around all day eating bon bons and mahi mahi tacos for dinner, oceanside.