Native Americans Still Face Significant Life Expectancy Gap

October 9 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Long known as Columbus Day, there has been a general shift away from commemorating the colonial explorer Christopher Columbus to instead re-centering the indigenous communities who lived in the Americas long before his arrival. The day is intended to not only celebrate indigenous history and culture but to also raise awareness around the ongoing challenges and inequalities the communities face today.

As data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, even before the pandemic, the life expectancy of the American Indian and Alaska Native population was significantly lower than that of other racial or ethnic group in the U.S. In 2019, it was 71.8 years for these indigenous men and women combined, versus 78.8 years for white non-Hispanics.

But by 2021, life expectancy for American Indians and Alaska Natives was just 65.2 years - over a decade less than the average life expectancy for the population overall (76.1 years) and a stark contrast to that of the other major groups (Asian, non-Hispanic population with 83.5 years; Hispanic with 77.7 years; white-non Hispanic with 76.4 years; Black, non-Hispanic with 70.8 years). When looking at a breakdown by gender, American Indian and Alaska Native men had an even lower life expectancy at just 61.5 years, while for women, it was 69.2 years in 2021.

According to an analysis by Allison Kelliher, a Native American physician and contributor to The Conversation, just some of the factors contributing to this disparity include the fact that Native Americans have the highest poverty rate among minority groups and continue to be impactacted by historical trauma.

This disparity is not unique to the U.S. alone. See here how the life expectancy of indigenous people is still much lower than that of the non-indigenous population or the population overall in countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.