Scientists have long known that air pollution from one area can have effects elsewhere. Damage to forests by acid rain in the Northeast in the 1960s was linked to coal-burning power plants in other regions, for example.

The new study, by Dr. Barrett, Irene C. Dedoussi of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and others, quantifies the effects of each state on every other, using pollution data and computer models to track pollution in the atmosphere. “It’s putting a head count on it,” Dr. Barrett said.

The study found that the states that emitted pollution that caused the most early deaths in other states were in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Ozone and fine particles emitted in Wyoming and North Dakota, for example, lead to few deaths per capita in those states. But the pollution is carried eastward by the prevailing winds, leading to more deaths elsewhere.

The analysis also found a decline in cross-state deaths linked to electricity generation since 2005, an indication that pollution regulations, like the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, are working. The rule, established in 2011, requires about 27 states, mostly in the eastern half of the country, to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which lead to formation of ozone and fine particles.