Where You Live Reveals How Long You’ll Live — Dave’s Diary

Former game show host Bob Barker is 90. That's more years than most of us will get. I guess his "have your pets spayed or neutered" approach to life is working for him.

You may not reach Barker's milestone, but picking the right place to live could tack on  a few years.Real estate experts are fond of saying “location, location, location” when it comes to picking a great place to live. For many of us that means Yakima, Yakima, Yakima.  Now it appears that location may also be the key to living a long life.

A recent Harvard study reveals the place where you live affects the length of your life. Experts analyzed death statistics from 1982 to 2001 and found those local lifestyles -- the foods you eat, how much alcohol you drink, and the general stress of your home and work life -- are the most important factors in determining how long you'll live.

• The longest lifespan was enjoyed by Asian-American women in Bergen County, N.J., who regularly lived to 91 years old.
• Next were working class white folks from the Northern Plains states, who averaged 79 years.
• Middle Americans, mostly white upper class suburbanites, made it to 77.9 years.
• Hard-working Southern whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley lived to 75 years.
• Blacks in Middle America lived 72.9 years on average, while Native Americans in the Western states averaged 72.7 years.
• Southern, low income African-Americans typically lived to 71.2 years, while inner city African-Americans made it to 71.1 years.
• The shortest average lifespan was held by the Native Americans of rural South Dakota, with most dying at age 58.

I just hope my Northern Plains potential followed me to Yakima!