The California Endowment’s Life Expectancy comparison is based on a data set provided by the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Average Life Expectancy at birth (LE) was computed for each Census tract using aggregated 2009-2011 death data from the California Department of Public Health and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The data set links the LE to California tract-level FIPS codes. The system uses an API to determine the Census tract in which an address is located and then reports the average LE for the residents in this tract. When a direct match can’t be made we perform a search based on the first 8 digits of the FIPS code and then display the average of the LE values returned.
The life expectancy listed is an estimate for the surrounding neighborhood, as defined by the census tract, and should not be interpreted as an accurate prediction for individuals living at the address.
