The Brief

Life expectancy in New York City was found to be 82.3 years in 2023.

The average life expectancy for major cities was 77.3 years.

Compared to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, New York City had the highest life expectancy.

NEW YORK CITY – Living up to 100 years old is a rare milestone achieved by a small portion of the population.

In the United States, life expectancy rose to its highest mark in history at 79 years in 2024 — but how does that number shift when it comes to life in major cities?

By the numbers

The estimated life expectancy at birth for New York City was 82.3 years in 2023, according to data released by the City Health Dashboard.

New York City’s age is 5 years younger than the average life expectancy of the analyzed cities, which is 77.3 years.

Here’s how New York City compares to other cities:

Washington DC: 77.4 years

Women in New York City will likely live longer than men on average, with a life expectancy of 85.2 years, compared to men’s at 79.2 years.

The study also broke down the city’s life expectancy based on rase/ ethnicity:

Big picture view

Life expectancy in the United States reached 79 years in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The age is an all-time high for the country and that is thanks to the decline of the COVID-19 pandemic and decreasing death rates from all the nation’s top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses.

Preliminary statistics also suggested a continued improvement in 2025.

Data also suggests that the number of Americans ages 100 and older is projected to more than quadruple over the next three decades, from just 0.03% in 2024, to 0.1% in 2054.

Dig deeper

The City Health Dashboard, a program created by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, offers data on over 1,200 U.S. cities with populations over 50,000.

To determine life expectancy in these cities, the Dashboard analyzed the Multiple Cause of Death Data, National Vital Statistics System, and the National Center for Health Statistics from 2023 with a 3-year estimate.

The Source

Information from this article was provided by the City Health Dashboard, CDC and Pew Research Center.