As a country we need to be doing more for poor people, but the south in particular is being hit hard
ETA: if I see any specious red versus blue political party stuff in the notes I will single you out PERSONALLY
Something you should always do with these kinds of maps is look at a population density map to make sure the map isn't just showing you where people live.
Population map:
Good, we can see there's not just a correlation between where people are dying and where people live. In fact, in some cases, places with cities can actually have a higher life expectancy! So the correlation clearly isn't "more people = more death". In the north, the city-to-longer-life correlation is likely caused by those cities being more liberal and having better healthcare policies.
But that trend only seems to work for cities in the north and for California. For the south and the Midwest, there isn't much of a correlation at all.
Now let's look at a poverty map.
There's a correlation. Notice the poverty map includes regions that correlate with lower life expectancy that the racial map does not, like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alaska. No clear explanation for why the life expectancy in Nevada is so low, though.
That doesn't mean race has nothing to do with this or that there isn't a correlation between race and life expectancy - there are a few parts on the racial map that correspond to the life expectancy map that don't show up on the poverty map, too!
It's clear that both race and poverty, both combined and independently, play a role in lower life expectancy.
hey see that red up in the top center? surrounded by counties with much higher life expectancy?
those are native american reservations
