--- title: The Surprising Life Expectancy Divide in Retirement Years description: New study shows older, low-income Americans die up to 9 years earlier than wealthy peers, highlighting deepening inequality. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 499 covers: - Health and Wellness - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Katherine Peach role: Associate Editor url: https://money.com/author/katherine-peach/ bio: Katherine Peach is an associate editor with a focus on news and email at Money. She didn’t always intend to write about money. She’s a classically trained pianist who dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. However, in 2007 Katherine began working in financial publishing as an editor for Agora Inc. (Apparently, unearthing ideas about improving your personal finances isn’t such a bad career alternative!) Katherine’s writing and editing work has been featured in Investing Daily, Clever, Investor Junkie, The Palm Beach Letter, Truth & Plenty, Independence Monthly, NICHE, AmericanStyle, AntiqueWeek, Millennial Money, Money Done Right, TheStreet, Sure Dividend and many others. Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Studies with concentrations in Archaeology and Ancient Languages and a minor in Literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. education: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at_money_since: 2025 articles: 14 covers: - Health and Wellness - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes published: '2026-03-02T14:15:25.000Z' modified: '2026-03-23T16:54:11.000Z' section: Health and Wellness tags: - News word_count: 635 canonical: https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo-illustration of a hand holding a stopwatch](https://img.money.com/2025/10/News-Poverty-Takes-9-Years-Off-Life.jpg) In the U.S., poverty doesn’t just leave its mark on bank account balances. New research shows it takes many years off people’s lives. Older Americans are particularly susceptible to the effects of poverty on their lifespan, according to a [study](https://www.ncoa.org/article/addressing-the-nations-retirement-crisis-the-80-percent-financially-struggling/) from the nonprofit National Council on Aging, or NCOA, and the [University of Massachusetts, Boston](https://money.com/best-colleges-2023/profile/university-of-massachusetts-boston/). Their research finds that for Americans age 60 and above, the lowest-income earners die an average of nine years sooner than the wealthiest Americans. “Poverty steals almost a decade of older Americans’ lives,” Ramsey Alwin, NCOA president and CEO, said in a [news release](https://www.ncoa.org/article/analysis-finds-low-income-older-adults-die-nine-years-earlier-than-wealthier-peers/). “Millions of older Americans who worked hard and played by the rules are dying early simply because they don’t have sufficient financial resources." It wasn’t only low-income households that were associated with higher rates of death. The bottom 60% of older Americans by wealth had mortality rates nearly double those of the wealthiest 10%. | | Bottom 20% (poorest) | 21% to 40% | 41% to 60% | 61% to 80% | 81% to 90% | 91% to 100% (wealthiest) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Household income | $19,560 | $30,112 | $46,200 | $60,286 | $80,400 | $120,000 | | Household net worth | $0 | $33,600 | $148,900 | $387,545 | $1 million | $2.5 million | | 5-year mortality rate (2018-2022) | 21% | 19.4% | 17.6% | 14.5% | 12.5% | 10.7% | | Average mortality age | 76 | 79 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 85 | _*For Americans 60 years and older. Source: NCOA, UMass-Boston, Money.com*_ Regardless of wealth, the five-year mortality rate in the U.S. for Americans 60 and older is 16.7%, according to a Money analysis of World Health Organization [data](https://platform.who.int/data/maternal-newborn-child-adolescent-ageing/indicator-explorer-new/MCA/all-cause-mortality-rate-in-older-people-\(per-100-000-population\)). At roughly 20%, death rates for older Americans with incomes of $30,000 and below are comparable to the rates for older citizens of Cuba, Iraq and Venezuela. The U.S. has long lagged behind other developed, wealthy nations when it comes to life expectancy. A [report](https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/3.7.2025-Life-Expectancy-Working-Class-Report_final.pdf) released by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, committee found that, as of 2023, Americans died four years younger than those in comparable countries. And within the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans lived seven years longer than the bottom 50% of earners. “The massive income and wealth inequality that exists in America today is not just an economic issue; it is literally a matter of life and death,” Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), a ranking member of the HELP committee, [said](https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/new-report-working-class-americans-can-expect-to-die-at-least-7-years-earlier-than-the-wealthy/) at the time. ***[Pet Protection: See How Healthy Paws Pet Insurance Can Help Your Dog or Cat](https://money.com/pr/d3007ea468a5?data-trk-company=healthy-paws-review&data-trk-imp=true&data-trk-pcu-type=direct_link&data-trk-pcu-uuid=d3007ea468a5&encoded_id=)*** ## A growing mortality gap The link between wealth and longevity is well established. But this research suggests that the life-expectancy gap between the richest and poorest older Americans is widening. The five-year analysis by NCOA, which spans from 2018 to 2022, provides a window into how the pandemic exacerbated inequalities. For instance, when comparing 2018 to 2022, the net worths of Americans in the bottom 60% declined, as did their median age, revealing that the shocks of COVID-19 had a disproportionately negative impact on the longevity and wealth of most Americans. ***Gold Investor Kit Offer: [Sign up with American Hartford Gold today and get a free investor kit, plus receive up to $25,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases](https://money.com/pr/u3ef79664b8e)*** At the same time, the wealth of the top 20% of Americans soared. For instance, the net worth of the wealthiest group rose from $1.8 million in 2018 to $2.5 million in 2022 — while the median age of this group actually jumped from 73 to 74 in spite of the deadly pandemic. “The reality is that the vast majority of older adults are struggling financially now or are at risk of falling into poverty,” the researchers say in the NCOA report. “Most of them will face financial insecurity as they age,” especially when it comes to [affording long-term care](https://money.com/americans-underestimate-long-term-care-costs/). Looking ahead, the researchers have grim expectations, pointing to new Medicaid work requirements and the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. These policy changes are expected to knock [some 15 million Americans from their health insurance plans](https://money.com/americans-could-lose-health-insurance-budget/), which could further intensify the trend. “The future of aging in America will likely be defined by an ever-widening inequality in both financial status and mortality,” they add, “deepening the divide between the majority of older Americans ... and the top 20%.” *Editor's note: Money originally published this article on October 16, 2025.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Health and Wellness", "item": "https://money.com/health-and-wellness/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Health Care", "item": "https://money.com/health-care/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Surprising Life Expectancy Divide in Retirement Years" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/", "name": "The Surprising Life Expectancy Divide in Retirement Years", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2026-03-02T14:15:25.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/poverty-life-expectancy-americans-study/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2026-03-23T16:54:11.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Surprising Life Expectancy Divide in Retirement Years", "articleSection": "Health and Wellness", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/10/News-Poverty-Takes-9-Years-Off-Life.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Poverty-Takes-9-Years-Off-Life" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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