Also low-density population means smaller sample sizes thus larger error. Again, surprise.
http://www.instantpatientnewsletter.com/images/USA-2000-popu...
which looks very much unlike the map of life expectancy.
The truly low-population areas of the US (the non-coastal western half, the tip of Maine, and the whole of Alaska (where medical care is truly remote) seem to have fairly long lifespans. The South, where lifespans are short, is mostly fairly densely populated.
A map which correlates much better with the lifespan map would be this one http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2lW15AgGThE/S_7yokwe3zI/AAAAAAAAAB... showing the percentage of black people in each county. It's still not a perfect match, though, and it's clearly not just about race because the average lifespan for a black man in the US is 75 and for a white man 79; a much smaller disparity than the county-by-county disparity we're looking at there.
If the men in your county are dropping dead at an average age of 66, it's not just about health care, it's gotta be some combination of:
1. Widespread substance abuse or alcoholism, and
2. Serious widespread obesity.
Come to think of it, we can probably find a map for the latter too; here it is:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/11/24/business/econ...
I love southern food and all, but it should come as no surprise that if you eat fried chicken, biscuits and gravy every day for breakfast you're gonna wind up dead.
Further, culture determines willingness to USE available healthcare. Southerners have a culture of independence. Men are reluctant to complain about health anyway; compound that with stubbornness and phobias about large institutions.
You can even argue its not a Problem than some folks have lower life expectancies; they chose that lifestyle. God bless America, they're allowed to do that.
In the southwest there are vast stretches where nobody lives, dropping population density in a distorted way.
In the southeast, there are vast stretches of lightly-populated land.
These are not at all the same thing in this context.
Even in the semi-rural area where I live, if I needed heart surgery, the local cardiologists won't do the surgery. They would send me up the road to DC, two hours away, like they did with my father-in-law. And I live in a county with a high median income.
