New Yorkers Live Four Years Longer Than the Average American, and Williamsburg Ranks Near the Top in Brooklyn

By Williamsburg 365 Staff

New Yorkers are living longer than ever, and Brooklyn’s Hasidic neighborhoods are among the borough’s leaders, according to city health data.

Life expectancy in New York City reached 83.2 years in 2024, the highest level on record, according to preliminary city Health Department figures. That is about four years more than the average American, who could expect to live 79 years that same year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Health Department said much of the rise came from a sharp drop in COVID-19 deaths, which fell 93.1 percent between 2021 and 2024. Deaths from homicide and overdose also went down.

“Although we have met this goal, our work is not done,” then-acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse said when the city announced the milestone.

The gaps across Brooklyn are wide. The Health Department’s latest vital statistics report lists life expectancy for each of the borough’s 18 community districts

Williamsburg and Greenpoint came in at 84.8 years, fourth in Brooklyn. Only Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights at 86.3, Borough Park at 85.2 and Bensonhurst at 85.1 ranked higher. At the bottom was Brownsville at 75.0 years, almost ten years less than Williamsburg.

That means two of Brooklyn’s largest Chasidic communities, Borough Park and Williamsburg, both rank in the borough’s top four.

The pattern matches what researchers have found among Orthodox communities in Israel. A study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that cities with many Charedi residents, led by Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem, had longer life expectancy than their lower incomes would predict. Charedi men in those cities lived about three years longer than expected, and Charedi women about a year and a half longer, the study found. The researchers tied the finding to strong community and social ties.

Israel as a whole has some of the highest life expectancy in the world, with men at 81.4 years and women at 85.9, according to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics.