Hispanics Live Longer

If I asked you to speculate about the average lifespan of U.S. blacks, whites, and Hispanics, you'd expect whites to live longer than either blacks or Hispanics. You'd reach this conclusion based on the average socio-economic status of the three groups.

Here are some counterintuitive findings, generated by the National Center for Health Statistics, reported in USA Today. It turns out Hispanics live longer than whites, who live longer than blacks. No data were reported for Asians.

The article speculates about reasons, including the "healthy emigrant" hypothesis, but no absolute cause for the differences is known. In the words of J.K. Rowling's wand-maker, Mr. Olivander, "curious indeed how these things happen."