Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years of life in the US than in Europe

Americans at all wealth levels are more likely to die sooner than their European counterparts, with even the richest U.S. citizens living shorter lives than northern and western Europeans. That is the key finding of a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It was also found that while the wealthiest Americans live longer than the poorest, the wealth-mortality gap in the U.S. is far more pronounced than in Europe.

A team of health policy researchers who study health systems and how their performance compares across countries conducted this research.

They analyzed survey data from 73,838 adults ages 50 to 85 across the United States and 16 European countries over a 12-year period and compared how long people across the wealth spectrum lived during the course of our study. The 16 European countries are grouped into European regions: northern and western, southern and eastern Europe.

The research revealed that people in the wealthiest 25% of the study population across the U.S. and Europe were 40% less likely to die during the study period than the poorest quarter of people. The wealthiest 25% of people in northern and western Europe had mortality rates that were about 35% lower than participants in the wealthiest quartile in the U.S. For those from southern Europe, during the study period this value ranged from 24% to 33%. For those from eastern Europe, the value ranged from 1% to 7%. The poorest individuals in the U.S. appear to have the worst survival, including when compared with the poorest quarter of people in each European region.

For more information see “Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years of life in the US than in Europe,” The Conversation, April 9, 2025. 

Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (University of Virginia School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.