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This map shows the average life-expectancy for all income levels across the state. New research shows that the rich are outliving the poor across the U.S.

If you're poor, go to Erie if you want to live. Or at least, if you want to live longer.

The Erie area, according to research released by the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports the highest-life expectancy for poor in the state, with an average of 79.1 years.

The average life-expectancy in the Erie area -- which includes Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Venango and Warren counties -- is a year more than the lowest in Pennsylvania, which belongs to the Philadelphia area at 78.7.

Mouse over the counties to see average life expectancy based on income quartiles, with Q1 being the poorest group and Q4 being the wealthiest.

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Researchers used income data from 15 years of tax records and mortality data from the Social Security Administration to estimate race-adjusted life expectancy for 40-year-olds by household income, gender and geography in the U.S.

Overall, researchers found is not surprising: the wealthier tend to live longer lives. But where the poor live plays an equal role in life expectancy.

Lots of other factors may also play a role in determining life expectancy, including -- but certainly not limited to -- race, access to healthcare and genetics.

However, the data shows that even gaps between the very poor and slightly poor exist, as do gaps between the very wealthy and the slightly wealthy.

In the deepest breakdown of the data, the lowest income bracket of 20 has an average life-expectancy across Pennsylvania of 76.5. In the next income bracket, it's 77.8 -- more than a year longer.

The life expectancies between the rich and poor show even sharper contrast.

In Erie County, life expectancy for the poor is 78.7 years; for the rich in the area, it's 86.5 years.

Mouse over the dots for more information. Not every county is labelled, though counties are in alphabetical order.

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The county with the highest life expectancy for the poor is Bedford County where people are expected to live 81.7 years. The county with the lowest life expectancy for its poor residents is Dauphin County, where the life expectancy is 77.5 years on average.

For the wealthiest, the best place to live in Pennsylvania is Snyder County, where life expectancy is 88.61 years. The county with the lowest life expectancy for the wealthy is Perry County at 83.87 years.

More poor women live the longest in Wyoming County with an 84.6-year life expectancy; poor men live the longest in Buford County with a 78.9-year life expectancy.

Mouse over the bars for more information. Not all counties are labelled, but are shown by mousing over the individual bars.

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