U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project: Methodology and Results Summary

Abstract

Statistically reliable, abridged, period life tables were produced for 88.7% of U.S. census tracts (65,662). A battery of tests revealed that the census-tract life table functions followed expected patterns; their distribution about state and U.S. values showed no aberrations; and their weighted mean values compared well with state- and national-level estimates. The weighted mean life expectancy at birth for the 65,662 census tracts was 78.7 years compared with the official U.S. estimate of 78.8 years in midyear 2013. The results of this study concur with previous research showing that a minimum population size of 5,000 is acceptable, with the caveat that missing age-specific death counts cannot be ignored. The methodology developed for this study addressed the issues of small populations and zero deaths as robustly as possible, although it is not without error.