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Complete Health Indicator Report of Life Expectancy from Birth

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Why Is This Important?

Life Expectancy is often used to gauge the overall health of a community. Shifts in life expectancy are often used to describe trends in mortality. Being able to predict how populations will age has enormous implications for the planning and provision of services and supports. Small increases in life expectancy translate into large increases in the population. As the life expectancy of a population lengthens, the number of people living with chronic illnesses tends to increase because chronic illnesses are more common among older persons. Increases in life expectancy began to decline due to opioid deaths. In 2020, Life Expectancy took a significant downturn because of deaths from the corona virus, COVID-19.

Definition

Life expectancy is an estimate of the expected average number of years of life (or a person's age at death) for individuals who were born into a particular population. Life expectancy is sensitive to deaths to younger persons, such as infant mortality and injury deaths.

How Are We Doing?

Women typically outlive men. Using the mortality experience of New Mexicans in 2020, females living in New Mexico can expect to live 78.5 years, and males can expect to live 71.8 years. Both New Mexico and the U.S. have seen a decrease in Life Expectancy beginning in 2019, most likely due to the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.22273393v1.article-info Preliminary data] from 2021 indicates a further decline in the U.S. life expectancy.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

For New Mexico residents, life expectancy from birth is similar to that of their U.S. counterparts.

What Is Being Done?

Until 2018, life expectancy had been increasing for... well, since records had been kept. Now that people are living longer, it is important to look at ways that those added years can be lived in good health. In addition to solving the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, exercise, healthy diet and weight, not smoking, moderate use of alcohol and injury prevention habits such as wearing seat belts all contribute to a healthy life span.

Evidence-based Practices

Prevention and control of infectious diseases has had a profound impact on life expectancy during the 20th century. In the United States life expectancy at birth from 1900 to 2000 increased from 48 to 74 years for men, and from 51 to 79 years for women. In contrast to life expectancy at birth, which increased sharply early in the century, life expectancy at age 65 improved primarily after 1950. Among U.S. men, life expectancy at age 65 rose from 12 to 16 years from 1950 to 2000, and among women from 12 to 19 years. Improvements in nutrition, hygiene, and medical care contributed to decreases in death rates throughout the lifespan.

Other Objectives

New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI)

New Mexico life expectancy appears to show a leveling-off of the gains we have experienced over the past decades. That trend is consistent with national data on life expectancy.

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

Life Expectancy from Birth by County, New Mexico, 2018-2020

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

Data Sources

  • New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
    (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
  • New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
    (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

Life Expectancy from Birth by Health Regions, New Mexico, 2018-2020

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

Life Expectancy from Birth by Urban and Rural Counties, New Mexico, 2018-2020

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    For information on life expectancy calculation, please see the [https:./resource/LifeExp.html NM-IBIS Life Expectancy help page].

  • Denominator:

    See numerator note.

  • Death Certificate Data

    Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

  • New Mexico Population Estimates

    All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies website. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County and Small Area population estimates. Population estimate totals may vary due to rounding. Population estimates for previous years are occasionally revised as new information becomes available. When publishing trend data, always be sure that your rates for earlier years match current rates on NM-IBIS that have been calculated with the most up-to-date population estimates.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Life Expectancy from Birth

Community Health Resources and Links





Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.

Indicator Data Last Updated On 04/15/2022, Published on 04/15/2022
Community Health Assessment Program, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, 1190 S. Saint Francis Drive, P.O. Box 26110, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. Contact Rena Manning at rena.manning@doh.nm.gov