Recent work on mortality trends over the past couple decades indicates that middle-aged white Americans, especially those without a high school diploma, have not experienced the same increasing longevity seen in nonwhite populations. Analyses by John Bound, Arline Geronimus, Javier Rodriguez, and Timothy Waidmann see it a bit differently. Using percentile of educational attainment rather than simple attainment, the researchers find that US whites and blacks of all ages at the low end of the education distribution “have lost significant ground in life expectancy in relative terms. As with recent findings on disparity in economic outcomes, mortality also appears to be trending toward greater inequality.”

More about Bound, Geronimus, et al. find estimates of decreasing longevity among low-SES whites sensitive to measures and interpretations >