Photo Credit: bernardbodo (iStock).

Photo Credit: bernardbodo (iStock).

Near the end of last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their life expectancy at birth for American states based on the most recent data, which is from 2020. While Coloradans don't live the longest among the American population, they do live more than six years longer than the state with the shortest life expectancy.

According to the CDC, the life expectancy at birth in Colorado is 78.3 years, giving Coloradans the 12th-longest life expectancy nationwide. The longest life expectancy is found in Hawaii – 80.7 years – with the shortest life expectancy found in Mississippi – 71.9 years.

While 78.3 years sounds like a long life, this is a step down from life expectancy in 2019, when Coloradans could expect to live 80 years – tied with Washington to be eighth among American states. Coloradans also had a life expectancy of 80 years in 2018, though in that year, this was high enough to rank seventh nationwide (also tying with Washington).

While the life expectancy of Coloradans did drop between 2019 and 2020, the 1.7-year drop was less than New York's drop of three years during the same period, with Empire State life expectancy falling the most in the nation between 2019 (80.7 years) and 2020 (77.7 years).

Per the CDC, the five leading causes of death in Colorado in 2020 were cancer (8,252 deaths, third lowest death rate in nation), heart disease (8,023 deaths, fourth lowest death rate in nation), COVID-19 (data presented by quarterly rate on CDC website, Worldometers reports 3,901 COVID-19 deaths in 2020), accidents (3,647 deaths, 27th lowest death rate in nation), and chronic lower respiratory diseases (2,490 deaths, 27th lowest death rate in nation).

Colorado's 2020 life expectancy of 78.3 years compares to a worldwide life expectancy of 72.63 years and a nationwide life expectancy of 77.28 years, which ranks the United States 54th worldwide. Japan had the highest life expectancy in 2020, at 84.62 years, with females in Japan living even longer with a life expectancy of 87.74 years.