No leisure-time physical activity and Life expectancy
Across 2,862 counties, No leisure-time physical activity and Life expectancy have a link of -0.71, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a weak link of -0.32 remains. Most of the first figure came from both measures following how urban, rich and educated a place is, not from a link with each other.
Mostly gone after adjusting
Every place, plotted
One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.
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What each measure is
No leisure-time physical activity
The estimated percentage of adults who did no physical activity outside work in the past month. It is adjusted so places with older or younger populations can be compared fairly. It is an estimate from a statistical model, not a direct count from a local survey.
CDC PLACES · PLACES LPA, age-adjusted
Life expectancy
How long a baby born here would live if today's death rates stayed the same all its life. It sums up death rates now. It is not a prediction for any real child.
County Health Rankings · County Health Rankings v147
Highest and lowest
Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.
Counties
By no leisure-time physical activity
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Dimmit County, TX | 48.9% | 71 years |
| Zavala County, TX | 48.2% | 69.9 years |
| Starr County, TX | 47.6% | 73.9 years |
| Zapata County, TX | 47.1% | 74.7 years |
| Jim Hogg County, TX | 46.6% | 72.5 years |
| Lowest | ||
| Boulder County, CO | 12.2% | 82.3 years |
| Pitkin County, CO | 12.6% | 94.2 years |
| Los Alamos County, NM | 12.7% | 83 years |
| Jefferson County, CO | 12.8% | 78.9 years |
| Broomfield County, CO | 13.1% | 81.9 years |
By life expectancy
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Pitkin County, CO | 12.6% | 94.2 years |
| Mono County, CA | 20.8% | 93.6 years |
| Summit County, CO | 15% | 92.4 years |
| Oliver County, ND | 21.7% | 92.2 years |
| Eagle County, CO | 15.9% | 89.7 years |
| Lowest | ||
| Buffalo County, SD | 37.6% | 54 years |
| Dewey County, SD | 36.9% | 56.7 years |
| Oglala Lakota County, SD | 41.7% | 56.9 years |
| Corson County, SD | 37.1% | 58.7 years |
| Todd County, SD | 42.3% | 58.7 years |
States — No leisure-time physical activity is not published for states
By life expectancy
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Hawaii | — | 81.4 years |
| Massachusetts | — | 79.7 years |
| California | — | 79.4 years |
| New York | — | 79.4 years |
| Minnesota | — | 79.3 years |
| Lowest | ||
| Mississippi | — | 71.9 years |
| West Virginia | — | 72.1 years |
| Alabama | — | 73.3 years |
| Kentucky | — | 73.3 years |
| Louisiana | — | 73.3 years |
Metro areas — Life expectancy is not published for metro areas
By no leisure-time physical activity
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Rio Grande City-Roma, TX | 47.6% | — |
| Zapata, TX | 47.1% | — |
| Raymondville, TX | 44.5% | — |
| Eagle Pass, TX | 42.2% | — |
| Clarksdale, MS | 42.1% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| Boulder, CO | 12.2% | — |
| Los Alamos, NM | 12.7% | — |
| Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | 13.9% | — |
| Bozeman, MT | 14.5% | — |
| Port Townsend, WA | 14.7% | — |
Cities and towns — Life expectancy is not published for cities and towns
By no leisure-time physical activity
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Cameron Park CDP, TX | 50.9% | — |
| Roma city, TX | 50.5% | — |
| Doffing CDP, TX | 50.3% | — |
| Lamont CDP, CA | 49.7% | — |
| Eidson Road CDP, TX | 49.6% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| Superior town, CO | 9.3% | — |
| Gunbarrel CDP, CO | 9.6% | — |
| Evergreen CDP, CO | 9.7% | — |
| Louisville city, CO | 9.8% | — |
| Fairmount CDP, CO | 10.2% | — |
Counties furthest from the pattern
Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,873 counties: the five with far more life expectancy than their no leisure-time physical activity would suggest, and the five with far less.
| No leisure-time physical activity | Life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Above the line | ||
| Manassas Park city, VA | 31% | 88.9 years |
| Mono County, CA | 20.8% | 93.6 years |
| Oliver County, ND | 21.7% | 92.2 years |
| Presidio County, TX | 41% | 81.3 years |
| Pitkin County, CO | 12.6% | 94.2 years |
| Below the line | ||
| Buffalo County, SD | 37.6% | 54 years |
| Kingman County, KS | 26.3% | 61 years |
| Dewey County, SD | 36.9% | 56.7 years |
| Roosevelt County, MT | 29.5% | 60.4 years |
| Benson County, ND | 30.5% | 60.1 years |
Two series, one county
Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.
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Every version of the link
Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.
| Before adjusting for anything | -0.708 | 2,862 counties reporting both |
| After adjusting for density, income and education | -0.317 | the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is |
| Also adjusting for population size | -0.318 | size taken out as well as density |
| Also comparing only within each state | -0.222 | each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states |
| Giving bigger counties more weight | -0.110 | the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 259 equally weighted counties |
| Middle value inside single states | -0.701 | the link worked out inside each of 38 states with at least 20 counties reporting |
| Using ranks, after adjusting | -0.272 | uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link |
How much to believe it
Could it be chance?
The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 7.9e-68. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 6.6e-6. The site tested 20,910 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 5.1e-67.
Do nearby places look alike?
Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.27 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.
Did they change together?
The figures above compare counties at one moment. This asks a different question: where no leisure-time physical activity rose most, did life expectancymove too? Each county’s change is compared with the average change in its own state. That takes out ups and downs that hit a whole region at once. Each change is the gap between two estimates that both contain some error. That error pulls these links towards zero, so a weak one is weak partly for that reason. The q column shows whether a link could be a fluke, allowing for the many pairs tested: 0.05 or less means it is unlikely to be chance.
| Period | Counties | Change together | Within states | q |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–2019 the main test: each Census survey figure averages five years, and these two do not overlap; before the pandemic | — | — | — | — |
| 2019–2023 a repeat check: its two five-year survey figures both include 2019, and it covers the COVID years | 2,852 | +0.02 | -0.06 | 0.186 |
Measured over the nearest years published: Life expectancy: 2019–2022 for the 2019–2023 row.
Not measurable over the main period, so only the second period is shown. How change is measured.
Related pairs
- Life expectancy and Safety score — +0.64
- Life expectancy and Homicide rate, annual — -0.61
- No leisure-time physical activity and Returns claiming the earned income credit — +0.61
- Share American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic and Life expectancy — -0.58
- No leisure-time physical activity and Material security score — -0.58
- Child mortality and Life expectancy — -0.55
- Injury deaths and Life expectancy — -0.54
- Homicide rate and Life expectancy — -0.53
Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore No leisure-time physical activity and Life expectancy