Description/Abstract
The gap in life expectancy between Americans with and without a bachelor's degree keeps growing. This brief summarizes findings from a study using data from the National Center for Health Statistics Multiple Cause of Death files and the American Community Survey on 3,122 U.S. counties from 2010-2022. The authors find that a county's educational makeup creates divergent mortality effects for residents. For every 1% increase in bachelor's degree holders in a county, mortality declines by 4.5% for degree holders but increases by 1.2% for those without degrees. This pattern holds across heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The findings suggest that degree holders and non-degree holders may compete for limited health services, quality housing, and community resources in high-education counties.
Document Type
Research Brief
Keywords
Educational attainment, mortality gap, education-based mortality gap, county-level effects, spillover effects
Disciplines
Educational Sociology | Place and Environment | Sociology
Date
12-9-2025
Language
English
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Janet Wilmoth and Shannon Monnat for suggested edits on a prior version of this brief.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Heeyoung, and Yang, Tse-Chuan. (2025). How Does County Educational Composition Affect Mortality? Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #139. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.14305/rt.lerner.2025.22.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
