A report released by the Bexar County Health Collaborative Tuesday notes a 20-year gap in life expectancy for people living in San Antonio area neighborhoods.
The Community Health Needs Assessment is released every three years. The 2016 report shows that near east side and near west side populations have a life expectancy of 70 to 74 years. Meanwhile, the life expectancy in far northwest and southeast Bexar County is 90 to 94 years.
“If you live in a neighborhood where you have proper lighting, proper sidewalks, access to a grocery store in a safe way, then that that neighborhood is a thriving neighborhood,” says Health Collaborative executive director Elizabeth Lutz. “They have healthier outcomes.”
Lutz says the assessment has not looked specifically at the life expectancy disparity before. She says the data was not necessarily surprising, but important for local officials to understand.
“I can tell you that the issue of life expectancy by zip code or by neighborhood is not something that is just happening in San Antonio or in Bexar County,” says Lutz. “This is something that we’re seeing across the nation.”
Still, Lutz says, San Antonio has lower life expectancies than comparable cities.
The report also shows that Bexar County's growing income inequality resembles that of China—and some central city neighborhoods have unemployment rates eight times those on the far north side.
