Chatham County census tract deemed area with nation's best life expectancy

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A sliver of Chatham County including two large retirement communities has been deemed the census tract with the nation’s highest life expectancy.

Residents of Census Tract 201.04 — located in the northern central part of the Chatham County above U.S. Highway 64 — are expected to live an average of 97.5 years.

The tract includes Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, a large retirement community, and The Preserve at Jordan Lake in Chapel Hill, a golf course neighborhood.

Writing about the study for governing.com, Mike Maciag wrote that “most neighborhoods with the highest life expectancies tend to be communities of affluent residents with high levels of education.” Census tract data indicates that the area’s poverty rate is just 3.1 percent, compared to rates three-and-a-half-times higher in some tracts surrounding it.

Maciag’s article also reported that a tract in Stilwell, Oklahoma, was the lowest at just 56 years average life expectancy.