New county data shows rising life expectancy, falling overdose deaths and stark differences in how long people live depending on their zip code.
San Diego County residents are living longer, but new data shows where you live still plays a major role in how long you live and what you die from.In Coronado, residents live more than 87 years on average — the longest in the county.
Just a few miles away in Lemon Grove, life expectancy drops to just under 79 years, the shortest in the region.Lemon Grove is also one of the communities hit hardest by drug overdoses. In 2024, the overdose death rate there was nearly. Cancer is still the leading cause of death. And heart disease remains second. But when overdoses went down, stroke rose to the number three spot above unintentional injuries.“I’ve definitely noticed a decrease in the amount of people that community members are reporting having seen overdosed,” said Kayla Houston, an outreach worker with Father Joe’s Villages Street Health team. A big part of her work is harm reduction. That includes handing out naloxone, the overdose-reversing medication. “I've also seen a lot more people requesting fentanyl and xylazine testing strips so they can test their product,” Houston said. “Hopefully becoming more aware of what products they’re consuming.” The county’s data supports what she said she is seeing on the ground: the harm reduction approach is working. “So that feels like progress for us, to know … not only the tools, but the education that we’re trying to provide the community members is being put to use,” she said.“What we're exposed to and our experiences from the culture that we're within have an impact on our physical health and our mental health. And I think that both of those can contribute to someone's quality of life,” Houston said.Heidi de Marco is an award-winning photojournalist and health reporter who has focused her work on producing multimedia stories that help humanize the complex health and humanitarian issues impacting marginalized and vulnerable communities in the United States and abroad.San Diego FIFA World Cup base camp hosts prepare for international soccer teams KPBS keeps you informed with local stories you need to know about — with no paywall. Our news is free for everyone because people like you help fund it.KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.
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