South Dakota is a Great Place to Extend One’s Life Expectancy

If you want to live longer, a move to South Dakota will do you good.

A study commissioned by the American Economic Association found that a move to a vast majority of counties in the Mount Rushmore State would add anywhere from 0.01 to 1.25 years onto a person's life expectancy in those ages 65 and older.

They factored in things like pollution, quality of health care, lower crime rates, and higher socioeconomic status to determine the rankings.

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Overall, 55 of South Dakota's 66 counties would add some time to the life expectancy of an older person moving there:

+0.26 to +1.25 years

• Butte
• Custer
• Fall River
• Lawrence
• Meade
• Pennington

+0.01 to +0.26 years

• Bennett
• Bon Homme
• Brookings
• Brule
• Buffalo
• Campbell
• Charles Mix
• Clark
• Clay
• Codington
• Corson
• Day
• Deuel
• Dewey
• Douglas
• Faulk
• Grant
• Gregory
• Haakon
• Hamlin
• Hand
• Hughes
• Hutchinson
• Hyde
• Jackson
• Jones
• Kingsbury
• Lake
• Lincoln
• Lyman
• Marshall
• McCook
• Mellette
• Miner
• Minnehaha
• Moody
• Oglala Lakota
• Perkins
• Potter
• Roberts
• Stanley
• Sully
• Todd
• Tripp
• Turner
• Walworth
• Yankton
• Zeibach

Another eleven counties would see life expectancies stay about the same:

-0.15 to -0.02 years

• Aurora
• Beadle
• Brown
• Davison
• Edmunds
• Hanson
• Harding
• Jerauld
• McPherson
• Sanborn
• Spink

Only one county fell into the category that would see a person's life expectancy drop after a move there:

-0.08 to - 0.33 years

• Union

Overall in the nation, cities along either coast were among the places that saw the biggest jumps in life expectancy.