The website for the Rhode Island Life Expectancy Project is now live!

The Project is a landmark effort, developed by researchers at URI to highlight how health and well-being are influenced by where we live and work. It provides population and health data to Rhode Island researchers, policymakers, educators, and all current and future Rhode Island residents.

The Project found that life expectancy, ranging from 75.9 years in Woonsocket to 83.3 years in Barrington, was most strongly associated with the percent of the population with a education, violent crime rate, and per capita income. Also, some communities had unexpectedly high LE and low ASMR, despite poor social indicators. These findings highlight substantial place-based disparities and potentially addressable social determinants that could improve population health and reduce place-based disparities among neighboring communities.

Dr. Steve Cohen, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Studies, is the Principal Investigator of the project. Health Studies majors, Catherine Lenox (’21) and Julia Broccoli (’19), and Dr. Molly Greaney are also part of the URI study team. The web site was created by Heather O’Neill of Pixels for Humans.

For more information on the project, and to explore the data and results, check out the Project website: rilife.uri.edu.

The study was funded by the URI Office of Sponsored Projects and used mortality data from the Rhode Island Department of Health.