New York City’s HealthyNYC Campaign To Extend Lives Marks One Year - NYC Health

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New York City’s HealthyNYC Campaign To Extend Lives Marks One Year

Recent Data Show a Rise in Life Expectancy to 81.5 years in 2022 With Dramatic Decreases in COVID-19 Deaths

Life Expectancy Fell To 78 Years Following the COVID-19 Pandemic, Which Spurred the Adams Administration and the Health Department To Launch HealthyNYC

November 22, 2024 — New York City’s groundbreaking public health agenda, HealthyNYC, marked the end of its one-year anniversary this month. HealthyNYC aims to build a healthier city that improves and extends the lives of all New Yorkers. The campaign has set ambitious targets to address the greatest drivers of premature death, including chronic diseases, screenable cancers, overdose, suicide, maternal mortality, violence, and COVID-19. Overall, the campaign aims to extend the average life expectancy of New Yorkers to 83 years by 2030, with gains across racial and ethnic groups.

“In one year since launching HealthyNYC, we have connected New Yorkers with tools to help them live longer, healthier lives, seen a reduction in overdose deaths for the first time in years, worked with experts to better understand maternal mortality, and joined forces with partners to prioritize goals for a healthier New York City together,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “We firmly believe that to build a safer, more affordable city, we must ensure New Yorkers’ health remains a priority. With HealthyNYC, we will continue to work toward our clear goals to reduce the greatest drivers of premature death, including chronic and diet-related diseases and so much more.”

“HealthyNYC is an important guiding framework across so many critical issues from maternal health to the opioid crisis to chronic disease and other drivers of lost years,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “But it is more than just a framework, it is a way in which we are organizing our efforts to help every New Yorker live their healthiest, longest life. A life full of more time with loved ones, more laughter, more joy, more opportunity to engage in community, and more love. We look forward to building on what has worked in the first year of this initiative and moving forward to make more progress in the years to come.”

"HealthyNYC was launched as an overarching philosophy for how New York City should approach public health, beyond any administration. We’ve set out to raise the life expectancy of our city to its highest-ever level,” said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse. “In doing so, we’ve committed ourselves to improving the most important metric of human progress.”

“As we mark the one-year anniversary of HealthyNYC, I am proud to see how this groundbreaking initiative has already begun to transform health outcomes for New Yorkers,” said Council Member Lynn Schulman, Chair of the Health Committee. “HealthyNYC is more than a policy—it’s a promise to address disparities, expand access to care, and prioritize the well-being of every community across our city. I applaud the NYC Health Department for their unwavering commitment to this work and thank Mayor Adams, Acting Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse, and former Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan for their leadership in driving this vision forward. Together, we are building a healthier, more equitable New York City, one step at a time.”

“Improving life expectancy and creating a healthier New York City is a meaningful and ambitious goal, and we are honored to partner with HealthyNYC to help them achieve it,” said Melissa Panagides-Busch, Chief Operating Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “Our expertise in improvement science, capacity building, and implementation will complement the local teams’ knowledge and experience, enabling us to co-design a campaign that accelerates change and delivers on the promise of a healthier New York.”

2022 Data

New Yorkers’ life expectancy rose from 78 years in 2020 to 81.5 years in 2022 — an increase of 3.5 years. However, it remains lower than the high of 82.6 years before the COVID pandemic.

The overall increase in life expectancy is largely attributable to a sharp decline in COVID death rates across all racial groups, although major racial inequities persist among other leading causes of death. As of 2022, life expectancy for Black individuals in New York City is 76.9 years, 82.1 years for Hispanic/Latino individuals, 82.3 years for white individuals, and 86 years for Asian and Pacific Islander individuals.

More specifically, between 2021 and 2022:

COVID deaths declined 48%.

Screenable cancer mortality rates declined 6.5% among females; 1.1% among males. Among females, screenable cancer death rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white individuals. Among males, non-Hispanic Black screenable cancer death rates remain highest by a large margin.

Heart disease mortality remained unchanged. Rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black individuals.

Diabetes mortality remained unchanged. Rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black individuals.

Suicide rose 11.1%. The highest suicide rate remains among non-Hispanic white individuals, followed by Asian and Pacific Islander individuals.

Overdose deaths rose 13.3%. Rates worsened the most among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals.

For more in-depth information on the 2022 data, please visit HealthyNYC webpage.

“We have seen improvement in New Yorkers’ life expectancy, primarily driven by the declines in COVID-19 deaths. However, in aggregate, these numbers reveal just how unequal health outcomes are in New York City. Despite citywide gains, Black New Yorkers are dying more than five years earlier than white New Yorkers." Acting Commissioner Dr. Morse continued, “From its inception, HealthyNYC was designed as an evolving project to identify areas of need. The 2022 data offer a clearer picture of the state of New Yorkers’ health and provides us with crucial guidance on how we might refine our focus moving forward.”

In HealthyNYC’s first year, the city:

Launched the HealthyNYC Champion Initiative at Gracie Mansion with almost 100 stakeholders, creating a pathway for external partners to sign onto our city’s public goals.

Launched the “Healthy Is…” media campaign to provide individual New Yorkers with tools to increase their life expectancy.

Passed City Council legislation formally enshrining the HealthyNYC public health agenda into law.

Held a multistakeholder convening to seek input on maternal health inequities and launch the report Ending Maternal Mortality in NYC: The Blueprint, which includes a summary of data and recommendations to prevent future maternal deaths.

The inaugural HealthyNYC Symposium brought together city government and a diverse array of partner organizations to honor the one-year anniversary of the initiative’s launch. The symposium, which took place today, featured cross-cutting panels on the role of life expectancy as a guide for action and how we can leverage data to advance NYC’s goals.

HealthyNYC aims to reduce the following by 2030:

Cardiovascular disease and diabetes by 5 percent.

Screenable cancers, including lung, breast, colon, cervical and prostate cancers, by 20 percent.

Decrease overdose deaths by 25 percent.

Suicide deaths by 10 percent.

Annual COVID-19 deaths by 60 percent.

Pregnancy-associated mortality among Black women by 10 percent.

Homicide deaths by 30 percent.

Overall, the city aims to bring life expectancy above 83 years by 2030.

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MEDIA CONTACT: PressOffice@health.nyc.gov