Life may be short, but not in New York City.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday bragged that the city has beaten life’s averages, rolling out new figures showing that a baby born here in 2010 can expect to live 80.9 years — three years longer than when he took office.
“When you talk about 8.4 million people in New York City living three years longer than they did 10 years ago, it is just one of the great improvements in life expectancy ever found on the face of the Earth,” Bloomberg said at a press conference at the Health Department.
And the mayor pointed out that the city’s life expectancy is higher, and growing faster, than the national average of 78.7 years — an increase of 1.8 years over the past decade.
The mayor and his aides haven’t been shy about taking credit for the good news, which they said validates their sometimes controversial health policies.
Dr. Tom Farley, the city health commissioner, pointed to declining death rates from heart disease and cancer as primary reasons longevity is increasing.
“The risk factors for those are things we’ve been working on: smoking, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity,” said Farley. “That says that something we’re doing is working.”
When it comes to longevity, men fared better than women over the 10-year stretch. The longevity of an average New York City woman increased by 3.6 years since 2001, compared to 2.9 years for women.
African-Americans in the city showed the greatest improvement, from 73.4 years in 2001 to 77.2 in 2010. Whites lived to an average of 81.4 years, while Hispanics topped the charts at 81.9 years.
While on the topic, the 70-year-old mayor was asked how long he planned to hang around.
“I suspect whatever age I pick, the year before, I might want to revise that,” he joked.
Unsolicited, he then offered advice on how to live to a ripe old age: Keep working, stay involved, don’t slow down.
And, finally, quit complaining.
“People who complain die early, I’ve always thought,” he said.