Where you live shapes how long you live. Not your gym habit. Not your multivitamin. The neighborhood you call home. It determines your air quality and your food access. It shapes your daily stress, your social connections, and what kind of healthcare is available when you need it. Over decades, those factors compound — quietly, relentlessly — in ways that can separate a 79-year life from a 91-year one.
Using life expectancy data from the CDC’s USALEEP project — the most granular community-level longevity dataset ever built for the United States — we identified the longest-living community in every state. The dataset covers more than 18,000 neighborhoods and towns across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Some of the winners are places you’d expect. Others are communities most Americans have never heard of. That gap — between the expected and the surprising — is part of what makes the data worth sitting with.
The 5 Longest-Living Communities in America
| # | Community · State | Life Expectancy | Nat’l Percentile | Wellness Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Shelter Island · New York (ZIP 11964) | 92.9 yrs | 100th | See what makes it healthy → |
| 🥈 | Hanapepe · Hawaii (ZIP 96716) | 91.8 yrs | 100th | See what makes it healthy → |
| 🥉 | Lincoln · Massachusetts (ZIP 01773) | 91.4 yrs | 100th | See what makes it healthy → |
| 4 | Cool · California (ZIP 95614) | 90.1 yrs | 99.9th | See what makes it healthy → |
| 5 | Durant · Iowa (ZIP 52747) | 89.8 yrs | 99.9th | See what makes it healthy → |
The Numbers at a Glance
| Median life expectancy across all communities | 78.5 years |
| Longest-living community in America | 92.9 yrs — Shelter Island, NY |
| Top community in the lowest-ranking state (MS) | 81.6 yrs — Fondren, Jackson MS |
| Gap between best & worst state winner | 11.3 years |
| Shelter Island vs. the national median | +14.4 years above median |
| Communities analyzed | 18,215 of 18,357 |
| Data source & period | CDC/NCHS USALEEP · 2010–2015 |
How to Read These Cards
Each card highlights the longest-living neighborhood or community in that state — the place where residents outlive everyone else on average. The percentile shows where it stands nationally: 99th percentile means this community outlives 99% of the more than 18,000 areas in the full dataset. Life expectancy figures come from CDC tract-level estimates translated to community-level boundaries. Data covers 2010–2015. A small number of communities lacked sufficient population data and are not shown.
Douglas Island
Douglas Island sits across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau, connected by bridge to the capital. The small waterfront community is built around fishing, hiking, and kayaking. Physical activity is built into daily life here in a way it isn’t in most American neighborhoods.
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South Huntsville
Huntsville’s aerospace and defense sector concentrates engineers, scientists, and federal researchers — a population with strong health insurance, high incomes, and health-conscious habits. South Huntsville covers the Redstone Arsenal corridor and Research Park, one of the most educated ZIP codes in the state.
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Gould
Arkansas’s state winner is also its most surprising. Gould is a small Delta community with a historically low-income population — not the profile most associate with longevity. Strong extended-family ties and a tightly knit community fabric likely drive outcomes that diverge from what demographics alone would predict.
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Carefree
Carefree is exactly what it sounds like — an affluent master-planned community north of Scottsdale designed around golf, outdoor art, and the high desert. The dry climate, active retirement population, and proximity to Scottsdale’s medical infrastructure all contribute to longevity outcomes that outperform most of the Sun Belt.
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Cool
The name is not incidental — Cool has a self-selected character that draws outdoors-oriented, health-conscious residents to the Sierra Nevada foothills. Sitting at 1,600 feet with clean mountain air and an equestrian and hiking culture, Cool’s 90.1-year average is California’s top-performing area by a substantial margin.
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Parachute
Parachute is a small community along the Colorado River in Garfield County. The surrounding Grand Valley has clean air, low density, and an active ranch-and-recreation lifestyle. Modest in size and income, it punches well above its weight on longevity.
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Weston
Weston has no commercial downtown by design — residents voted to keep it residential. One of Connecticut’s most affluent and least-developed towns, it has exceptional schools, pristine green space, and a health-conscious professional-class population that consistently tops state health rankings.
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Penn Quarter
Penn Quarter covers the heart of downtown Washington — Federal Triangle, Pennsylvania Avenue, and the city’s business corridor. The high life expectancy here reflects a self-selected population of high-income professionals with excellent healthcare access. It is not representative of Washington D.C.’s full demographic picture.
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Greenville
Greenville sits along Wilmington’s Brandywine Creek corridor — one of Delaware’s most affluent and historically significant neighborhoods. Long home to DuPont executives and a well-established medical community, this area has some of the strongest healthcare access in the state.
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Lakewood Ranch
Lakewood Ranch is one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in America, home to an active, health-focused semi-retirement population east of Bradenton. The lifestyle infrastructure here is intentional: walking trails, medical facilities, and outdoor amenities are built in, not added later.
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Young Harris
Young Harris sits in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia, home to Young Harris College and a tight mountain community. Mild summers at elevation, abundant outdoor recreation, and the social bonds of small-town life create conditions consistently linked to longevity in the research literature.
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Hanapepe
Hanapepe is a former plantation town on Kauai’s west coast, now known for its art galleries and Friday night farmers’ markets. The Hawaiian lifestyle — strong ‘ohana (family) culture, proximity to the ocean, and a traditionally plant-forward diet — produces longevity outcomes that place Hawaii near the top nationally.
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Durant
Durant is a farming community in Scott County, just west of the Quad Cities. Eastern Iowa’s combination of agricultural lifestyle, strong community ties, and low cost of living produces health outcomes that consistently surprise observers expecting coastal cities to dominate longevity rankings.
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Challis
Challis is a small ranching community in the Salmon River Mountains at over 5,000 feet — one of the most remote county seats in the lower 48. The high-altitude terrain demands physical resilience, outdoor activity is constant, and the ranching community provides the social cohesion that longevity research consistently flags as protective.
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Fisher
Fisher sits in the orbit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The proximity to a major research university brings educated residents, strong healthcare infrastructure, and the economic stability that separates top-performing Illinois communities from the state’s many challenged ones.
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Hope
Hope — the name is fitting. This small Bartholomew County arts community resists big-box development by design. The rural social fabric, community-scale lifestyle, and strong local identity create conditions that show up clearly in its longevity numbers.
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Sublette
Sublette is a high-plains farming community in Haskell County. The wide-open landscape, clean air, and strong multi-generational family ties — combined with the physical demands of agricultural work — create conditions that produce longevity outcomes well above the national median despite the remote setting.
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Hartland
Hartland covers the affluent southwest corridor of Lexington — one of the most educated and highest-income areas in the state. University of Kentucky’s medical center anchors a healthcare ecosystem that elevates outcomes here well above Kentucky’s challenging statewide averages.
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Lakeview
Lakeview is a New Orleans neighborhood that rebuilt itself deliberately after Katrina, drawing the city’s most resourceful residents. Its life expectancy outperforms the rest of Louisiana by a meaningful margin, driven by healthcare access, household income, and an unusually engaged community that rebuilt from scratch.
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Lincoln
More than a third of Lincoln’s land area is permanently protected open space — conservation land, with Walden Pond just over the town line. Near-zero commercial development, exceptional schools, and a health-conscious affluent population make this community the state’s longevity leader by a wide margin.
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Friendship Heights
Friendship Heights sits at the heart of Bethesda — home to the National Institutes of Health and one of the highest concentrations of medical researchers in the world. It is almost too on-the-nose: the neighborhood where America’s health researchers live turns out to be one of the longest-lived.
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York Village
York Village sits at the southern tip of Maine — the first community you reach after crossing from New Hampshire. Atlantic coastline, historic identity, an active tourist economy, and a health-conscious year-round population produce longevity outcomes that consistently lead the state.
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Saugatuck
Saugatuck is a lakeside arts community on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore, long a summer destination for Chicago’s creative class. The permanent year-round population is small, close-knit, and outdoors-oriented — kayaking, cycling, and cross-country skiing are community defaults, not hobbies.
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Elbow Lake
Elbow Lake sits in the lake country of western Minnesota. The fishing culture, tight-knit Scandinavian-heritage community, and agricultural roots create the social cohesion that longevity researchers consistently identify as protective against the chronic stress and isolation that drive early mortality.
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South Springfield
South Springfield covers the southeastern portion of Springfield, including the Republic corridor — one of Missouri’s most affluent areas. Missouri State University and Mercy Hospital Springfield anchor a healthcare and education ecosystem that elevates outcomes here well above the state’s challenging baseline.
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Fondren
Fondren is Jackson’s most walkable, arts-forward, and economically active neighborhood. At 81.6 years, it leads Mississippi’s communities in this dataset. It also trails every other state’s best neighborhood. The 11.3-year gap between Shelter Island and Fondren is the starkest evidence in this study of how much place shapes lifespan.
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Forsyth
Forsyth is a small community on the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana. The ranching culture has clean air, low density, and an outdoor lifestyle that keeps residents physically active through adulthood — patterns that appear consistently across Montana’s top-performing areas.
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Pinehurst
Pinehurst is one of America’s most famous golf resort communities and one of its most health-focused retirement destinations. Year-round outdoor activity, an active demographic, and FirstHealth of the Carolinas nearby create a longevity formula that leads the state by a clear margin.
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Hazen
Hazen sits on the Missouri River near Lake Sakakawea — one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the US. The fishing, boating, and outdoor culture, combined with the tight small-town fabric of rural North Dakota, drives outcomes that consistently outperform similarly-sized communities elsewhere.
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Arlington
Arlington is a small farming community northwest of Omaha in Washington County. The German and Czech agricultural heritage in eastern Nebraska is associated with tight community bonds, low rates of substance use, and the physical demands built into farm life — all factors that show up clearly in the longevity data.
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Eastman
Eastman is a private residential community in Grantham with its own ski area, golf course, and trail network. The active, semi-retirement lifestyle and strong community infrastructure in this Upper Connecticut River Valley neighborhood produce outcomes well above the state median.
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Princeton
Princeton is Princeton. The dense concentration of Ivy League researchers, biotech executives, and medical professionals here makes it perhaps the most predictable top-longevity neighborhood in this dataset. Healthcare access, income, and education are all at or near national ceilings.
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Hatch
Hatch is the Chile Capital of the World — a small farming community in the Hatch Valley with deep roots, tight multi-generational family structures, and a diet built around fresh produce. The longevity numbers suggest the ‘Hispanic paradox’ — better-than-expected health outcomes relative to income — is well-represented here.
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Anthem
Anthem is a master-planned community in southern Henderson — one of Nevada’s most affluent retirement destinations. Planned lifestyle infrastructure, a strong community, and proximity to Las Vegas’s hospital system help this neighborhood dramatically outperform Nevada’s otherwise challenging longevity profile.
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Shelter Island
At 92.9 years, Shelter Island is the longest-living area in this dataset — and possibly in America. Accessible only by ferry from Long Island’s North or South Fork, the island’s year-round population of roughly 2,400 is self-selected in ways that amplify every longevity factor: clean coastal environment, active lifestyle, wealth, and extreme social cohesion. The gap between Shelter Island and the national median (78.5 years) is 14.4 years.
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Gates Mills
Gates Mills is a village of roughly 2,200 in the Chagrin River Valley — one of Northeast Ohio’s most affluent communities. Combine extreme wealth, proximity to the Cleveland Clinic (a top cardiac center globally), and a quiet outdoor environment, and the state’s highest longevity score becomes less surprising.
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Cashion
Cashion is a small farming community northwest of Oklahoma City in Logan County. Agricultural lifestyle, a strong faith community, and multi-generational family ties create the social infrastructure that consistently shows up as protective in longevity research — independent of income level.
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West Hills
The West Hills are Portland’s most affluent and health-conscious neighborhoods, adjacent to Forest Park — one of the largest urban forests in the US. Wealth, outdoor culture, and Portland’s strong preventive healthcare infrastructure produce longevity outcomes well above the state and national median.
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Boalsburg
Boalsburg sits adjacent to Penn State University and is often cited as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Penn State’s medical center, a highly educated permanent population, and the outdoor recreation culture of central Pennsylvania’s ridge-and-valley landscape all contribute to longevity outcomes that lead the state.
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Pascoag
Pascoag is a village in Burrillville in Rhode Island’s northwest corner — forested, lightly populated, with strong community roots. The rural character of this corner of an otherwise urban state creates conditions that produce longevity scores well above Providence-area neighborhoods.
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Isle of Palms
Isle of Palms is a barrier island just north of Charleston. Year-round beach lifestyle, active outdoor culture, an affluent permanent population, and access to MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina) in nearby Charleston produce longevity outcomes that lead the state.
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Springfield
Springfield sits along the Missouri River in southeastern South Dakota. River culture, agricultural community, South Dakota’s clean environment, and a low-stress pace of life combine to beat the national median comfortably — from a community most Americans couldn’t find on a map.
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Leiper’s Fork
Leiper’s Fork is one of Middle Tennessee’s most sought-after rural communities, home to Nashville professionals and country music artists seeking space. High incomes, exceptional healthcare access via TriStar Centennial in nearby Franklin, and Williamson County’s active outdoor culture drive the state’s top longevity score.
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Stanton
Stanton is a small community in West Texas oil country in Martin County. At 87.6 years and the 99.3rd percentile nationally, the longevity numbers are unexpected for a community of this profile — and likely reflect tight multi-generational ties, the physical demands of agricultural and energy-sector work, and low exposure to urban health risk factors.
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Fillmore
Fillmore is Utah’s original state capital, a small community in the geographic center of the state. The strong LDS community culture — characterized by low rates of smoking, alcohol use, and drug use, combined with tight family and social ties — produces longevity outcomes that outperform Utah’s already-strong statewide numbers.
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Vienna
Vienna is one of Northern Virginia’s most established inner suburbs — a community of federal employees, contractors, and technology professionals with exceptional healthcare access, high incomes, and the active-lifestyle infrastructure that makes Fairfax County consistently one of the healthiest counties in America.
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Shaftsbury
Shaftsbury is a rural community at the base of the Green Mountains, known for covered bridges and apple orchards. Robert Frost lived here. The active agricultural and outdoor culture, Vermont’s strong community health infrastructure, and clean mountain environment produce outcomes that lead the state.
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Eastsound
Eastsound is the main community on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands, reachable only by ferry or floatplane. The island’s remoteness filters for a self-sufficient, health-conscious permanent population. Clean marine air, outdoor culture, and tight island community bonds produce longevity outcomes that lead Washington State.
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Sherwood
Sherwood sits on the northwest shore of Lake Winnebago — Wisconsin’s largest inland lake. Waterfront lifestyle, strong German-heritage agricultural roots, and the social infrastructure of a close-knit lakeshore community produce outcomes that consistently outperform Wisconsin’s baseline.
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Sandyville
Sandyville is a small community in the hill country of western West Virginia. Its top ranking in one of the nation’s most health-challenged states is notable. Rural social ties and an outdoor lifestyle create conditions here that differ meaningfully from the state’s more urban and economically distressed areas.
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Sundance
Sundance is the Crook County seat in the Black Hills of northeast Wyoming — best known for lending its name to the Sundance Kid. The small ranching community’s clean air, physical outdoor lifestyle, and low population density create conditions associated with longevity that outperform Wyoming’s statewide average.
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Source: CDC/NCHS U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP), data period 2010–2015. Tract-level life expectancy estimates were translated to the neighborhood and community level using population-weighted geographic averages. Of 18,357 communities in the full dataset, 18,215 had sufficient data for reliable estimates; 142 were excluded due to insufficient population data.
National stats: Median community life expectancy 78.5 years. Range: 65.8 years to 92.9 years. The community shown for each state is the highest life-expectancy area in that state based on this dataset.
Important context: These estimates reflect population-level averages for 2010–2015. They describe communities — not individuals. Longer-living communities typically reflect a combination of factors working together: income, healthcare access, environmental quality, lifestyle, and social cohesion. None of these are fixed. The data has not been updated since 2015.
Want to see how your own community scores? Explore the full Wellness Score tool →
Cory Jones has spent 20 years in media and publishing and now leads the data and editorial operation behind The Greenest. He built and maintains the site’s Neighborhood Wellness Score — a proprietary dataset scoring food access, walkability, air quality, healthcare access, and health outcomes across 18,356 U.S. ZIP codes, drawing on CDC PLACES data, EPA air quality readings, and verified location intelligence. He is a huge fan of Rancho Gordo beans and tries to work out more than he actually works out.
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