Share on Pinterest Researchers say obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes are making millennials less healthy than the generation before them. Getty Images

Vegan diets, yoga, Pilates, meditation, spinning, hiking, biking, indoor wall climbing.

You might be tempted to think that America’s nearly 73 million millennials have a lock on healthy living.

However, your assumption might be wrong.

A new study concludes that millennials may be even less healthy than Gen Xers, the generation before them.

And their health starts to decline at an earlier age.

How so?

Researchers for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association analyzed data from health insurance claims for 55 million millennials, who were ages 21 to 36 in 2017 when the study was done.

Based on the insurer’s optimal health index of 100, the study found that the average score for millennials was about 95.

But researchers also discovered that older millennials ages 34 to 36 had higher rates for 10 top health conditions than Generation X members had when they were the same age.

Health conditions such as depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, and substance use were among those considered.

Among the other takeaways:

Overall health for millennials begins to decline at age 27, which is earlier than expected.

Millennial women are 20 percent less healthy than their male counterparts.

Millennials are more affected by behavioral health conditions than physical.

Millennials in southern states, such as Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana, and Mississippi, are the least healthy. Millennials in western states, such as Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nevada, are among the healthiest.

Some of the findings even surprised the researchers.

“While it’s well-known in the health community that we’re seeing higher rates of depression in this generation, I found it surprising to see an increase in physical conditions, such as hypertension, especially since you don’t expect to see those kind of heart conditions in this age group,” Dr. Vincent Nelson, vice president of medical affairs for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, told Healthline.