Does your postal code determine your lifespan?

The hard truth is that the postal code in which you were born has more influence on your life expectancy than your genetic code. The CDC recently reported that the gap in life expectancy for black Americans continues to expand, with black lives interrupted by the years compared to other racial groups. Life expectancy for black Americans is 72.8 years old, almost five years younger than white Americans and more than eleven years less than Americans of Asian origin.

To unpack what is behind this gap, we spoke with Tomás León, president and executive director of the Equality Health Foundation, who developed the examination of the postal code to help communities to identify and resolve the daily conditions that shape the results of health.

Under the statistics

BHM: Why do racial gaps in life expectancy persist, even after years of conscience?

Tomás León: The postal code in which you were born has even more influence on your life expectancy than your genetic code. Everything is rooted in systemic inequalities that are not treated for too long. The pandemic has exacerbated these problems and always has a persistent effect.
These disparities persist because the social determinants of health – education, health care, housing, food, air and opportunities – are always distributed unevenly. Structural racism, disinvestment in colored communities and political decisions that ignore the lived realities all contribute.

BHM: What made this moment the right time to launch the postal code exam?

Tomás León: We said: “We need a tool like the Zip code exam now.” It is not enough to raise awareness – we need something to trigger exploitable and community -oriented solutions. It helps to discover the invisible and non -medical forces that shape health and authorize the basic action. With the safety nets striving, we must rekindle consciousness and point to people’s solutions. It is a tool for empowerment, advocacy and change.

BHM: How do you make data reflect the real experiences of black communities?

Tomás León: Data often speaks in medium and averages erase the lived experiences of people outside the standard. We have built a listening and communication tool.

The platform reflects the specificity of the community through hyperlocal data and priorities defined by the user. This is not only what the data say, it is what the community says. We consider the cultural context, access to languages, trust partners and relevant resources to meet people where they are. The ZIP Code review restores the agency saying: your story counts, your district counts and your health is not an average, it is personal.

What your postal code says

In 2025, your address can always shape your access to health and even how long you live. In many of our neighborhoods, this impact is cooked in the environment.

According to the USDA Food Access Research Atlas, grocery stores are more difficult to reach in areas with a large black population. The USDA Economic Research Service reports that 22% of black households are insecure food, more than double the rate for white households.

The EPA has shown that black Americans face higher exposure to air pollution, even when income and the region are the same. And the CDC’s USALEEP project extinguishes postal codes in states such as Mississippi and Louisiana where the difference in life expectancy between neighborhoods only 10 miles from the other can reach 15 years.

These statistics are not only designed on personal choices and coincidence; These are the results of decades of politics. To go even further, we decided to ask León how mental health connects to the wider discussion.

Collaborative health

BHM: You worked in public health, mental health and politics. How does the ZIP code examination connect to them?

Tomás León: Filling mental health, public health and politics is a moral imperative. Health is not partitioned. You cannot carry out physical health without mental health or improve mental health without resolving the social and environmental conditions in which live.

This is why the ZIP code examination does not only visualize the disparities, it helps to dismantle them. He reflects the full spectrum of health, including care, housing, trauma, stress and resilience. It connects people to local resources and gives data leaders to put pressure for a systemic change. We map the possibilities.

Real -time change

BHM: More than 200,000 people have already engaged with the site. Can you share a moment that shows what is at stake when health becomes a question of geography?

Tomás León: When more than 200,000 people engage with a platform such as examining the Zip code, it is a voice choir tells us where the system fails and where hope still lives. A postal code that really hit the house for me was 8,5004 in South Phoenix, Arizona. This is where the seed of the idea of ​​examining the postal code was planted. Arizona has become the plan. And now we reduce it to help more communities take charge of their health.

In this community, life expectancy is fourteen years below than in easier neighborhoods like North Scottsdale, a few kilometers away. The examination helps residents, they can provide data to neighborhood meetings, share it with their elected officials, associate with local community organizations, churches and businesses, and start defending better access to health care, affordable housing, healthy foods, safer streets, job possibilities and foot spaces. This is what is at stake when health becomes a question of geography. This is the opportunity to recover power and rewrite the story of the next generation.

Redefine structural barriers

BHM: In 2022, only 55% of people should live up to 80 years. The probability of survival aged 20 to 85 was even lower for black men. Does the platform offer a kind of digital calculation with a structural risk?

Tomás León: Yes, examination of the Zip code is absolutely a digital calculation with this reality. It is designed to expose the invisible architecture of inequality – how you live, work and grow can shape the duration and the way you live. But it is also an action tool. It helps individuals understand the risks in their environment, links them to local resources and allows communities to defend change.

I want political decision -makers to see this data and realize that these results are not inevitable; They are the result of choice. And we can make them different.

Signe confidence

BHM: Some people can see this as another dashboard. What do you say to black families who have the impression of having seen the figures, the graphics, the promises, but not enough change?

Tomás León: This skepticism is real, and it is won. The black community has heard speeches on equity while living through generations of inequality. So when someone says, “Here is another tool”, I understand why the first reaction could be, “then what?” I learned from our work of well-being in South Phoenix, Arizona, that collective impact and transformation occur at the speed of confidence.

What makes the ZIP code examination different is that it was not built for institutions, it was designed for community members and managers. It shows the figures and helps you act on them. And we know it’s not perfect. This is why we are delighted with comments from families, organizers and anyone using the platform. We are committed to improving it so that it really works with and for communities. Because the only way this tool succeeds is if it reflects the voices and needs of people, it is supposed to serve.

I want community members to use this tool to organize, require investments and create healthy future – the Zip code by postal code. We know that behind each point of data, there is a life. And behind each life, there is a story to fight.

Resources

Postal code exam: Calculate your life expectancy according to your postal code

National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 74, April 2, 8, 2025 United States Life Tables, 2022

Equality’s health foundation – Equality Foundation

USDA food access atlas

Food security in the United States – Key statistics and graphics | Economic research service

CDC USALEEP project