Life Expectancy in Texas 2026: Men, Women and County Data

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A baby born in Texas today can expect to live about 77 years, but that single number hides a gap of more than a decade between the state's longest-lived and shortest-lived neighborhoods, and a gap of roughly five and a half years between men and women.

This page pulls together the most reliable life expectancy figures for Texas: state totals split by sex, how Texas compares to the US average, the COVID-era dip and the recovery that followed, and the county and neighborhood range inside the state. Every figure is linked to its original source in the list at the foot of the page. Updated July 2026.

Contents:

Texas life expectancy right now

1. Life expectancy at birth in Texas is 77.1 years

According to the CDC's Stats of the States profile, life expectancy at birth for Texas was 77.1 years in 2022, the most recent year with finalized state life tables.1 That is a single figure for the whole population, and it is the anchor for everything below.

2. Texas sits just below the US average

Nationally, life expectancy at birth in 2022 was 77.5 years for the total population.2 Texas, at 77.1 years, runs a few tenths of a year below the country as a whole. That places it in the middle-to-lower band of states rather than at either extreme.

3. The gap between the top and bottom states is huge

In the 2022 state life tables, Hawaii ranked first for the total population at 80.0 years, while West Virginia ranked last at 72.2 years, a spread of nearly eight years between the healthiest and least healthy states.3 Texas falls comfortably inside that range, closer to the national middle.

Men versus women

4. Texan women outlive Texan men by more than five years

The sex gap is one of the most consistent findings in the data. In the 2021 state life tables, life expectancy at birth in Texas was 72.7 years for men and 78.3 years for women, a difference of 5.6 years, with a total of 75.4 years that year.4

5. The same gap shows up nationally

Across the United States in 2022, men could expect 74.8 years and women 80.2 years, a gap of 5.4 years.5 Texas tracks that national pattern closely: men trail women by a similar margin whether you look at the state or the country.

6. The sex extremes are wide across states

The state life tables show how far the sex-specific numbers stretch. Massachusetts ranked first for men in 2022 at 77.4 years, while Mississippi ranked last for men at just 69.5 years, and Hawaii led women at 83.0 years.6 A Texan man's outlook sits between those poles.

GroupTexasUS average
Total (2022)77.177.5
Men (2021)72.773.5
Women (2021)78.379.3

Texas figures for total from the CDC state profile and 2022 tables; sex-specific figures from the 2021 state life tables.7

The COVID dip and the recovery

7. Life expectancy fell nationally two years running

US life expectancy dropped in 2020 and again in 2021, the first back-to-back declines since the early 1960s, driven overwhelmingly by COVID-19 deaths.8 Texas was part of that national reversal rather than an exception to it.

8. Texas was among the hardest-hit states

Reporting on the CDC data noted that Texas saw one of the larger drops in the country, with statewide life expectancy sliding to about 75.4 years by 2021, well below where it stood before the pandemic.9

9. Texas rebounded strongly from 2021 to 2022

The recovery was real. Texas was among the states with the greatest increases in life expectancy at birth from 2021 to 2022, a gain concentrated in the South as pandemic mortality eased.10 That is how Texas climbed from 75.4 to 77.1 years in a single year.

10. The national recovery continued into 2023

US life expectancy rose again in 2023 to 78.4 years for the total population, 75.8 for men and 81.1 for women, the second straight annual increase.11 Finalized 2023 state tables for Texas were not yet published as of mid-2026, but the national trend points the same direction.

The range inside Texas

11. Neighborhoods in Texas differ by more than 11 years

State averages flatten enormous local variation. Using small-area estimates, the bottom 5% of Texas census tracts have a life expectancy of 72.1 years or lower, while the top 5% reach 83.3 years or higher, an 11-year gap, with the median tract at 77.8 years.12 Compare the very top and bottom 1% of tracts and that gap widens to nearly 17 years.

12. The estimates cover thousands of Texas neighborhoods

Those figures come from the US Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project, which produced life expectancy at birth for the vast majority of census tracts nationwide, including more than 4,700 neighborhoods across every Texas county.13

13. Suburban counties lead the state

County-level mapping has long shown fast-growing suburban counties near the top. Williamson County, north of Austin, has ranked highest in the state, with figures approaching 80 years for men and the low 80s for women, while several rural counties sit years lower.14

What shortens Texan lives

14. Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death

In Texas, heart disease is the top cause of death, followed by cancer and accidents, with stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease filling out the leading causes.15 These chronic conditions do most of the work of setting the state average.

15. Overdose, firearm and homicide deaths add up

Injury deaths weigh heavily on the male figure in particular. The Texas drug-overdose death rate was 15.8 per 100,000, the firearm-injury death rate 13.9 per 100,000 and the homicide rate 6.2 per 100,000 in recent CDC data.16

16. Infant mortality is above the national rate

Texas recorded 5.70 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, a figure that runs above the US average and reflects some of the same access and income divides that drive the neighborhood gaps above.17 How US life expectancy stacks up against peer nations puts this in context: the country trails comparably wealthy nations despite spending far more on health care.18

A big, fast-growing state

17. More than 31 million people live in Texas

Texas is the second most populous state, home to an estimated 31,290,831 residents as of July 2024 and adding more people than any other state.19 The Census Bureau's Texas profile confirms the scale and the rapid, migration-driven growth.20

18. The state keeps growing older and larger at once

State demographers project continued growth concentrated in the major metros, which reshapes the age structure and, in turn, the mortality picture over time.21 National projections already point to a US average near 78.5 years for 2026, and Texas typically moves a step behind the country.22

Whatever the state average, life expectancy is only an average: it says nothing about any one person's timeline, which is exactly why planning ahead matters. If you live in Texas and have never put your wishes in writing, our guided will builder walks you through a valid Texas will step by step. You may also want to read how many Texans actually have a will in our companion statistics page.

Sources

  1. 1CDC, Stats of the States: Texas (cdc.gov)
  2. 2NCHS, U.S. State Life Tables, 2022 (National Vital Statistics Reports) (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  3. 3NCHS, U.S. State Life Tables, 2022: state rankings (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  4. 4List of U.S. states by life expectancy (NCHS 2021 tables) (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. 5NCHS, U.S. State Life Tables, 2022: national figures by sex (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  6. 6NCHS, U.S. State Life Tables, 2022: sex-specific state extremes (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  7. 7List of U.S. states by life expectancy: Texas vs US by sex (en.wikipedia.org)
  8. 8CDC/NCHS, Life Expectancy in the U.S. Dropped for the Second Year in a Row in 2021 (cdc.gov)
  9. 9KXAN, Texans expected to live shorter lives: CDC report (kxan.com)
  10. 10CDC/NCHS, U.S. Life Expectancy by State and Sex, 2018-2022 (cdc.gov)
  11. 11CDC/NCHS, Mortality in the United States, 2023 (Data Brief 521) (cdc.gov)
  12. 12Episcopal Health Foundation, Texas neighborhood life expectancy analysis (episcopalhealth.org)
  13. 13CDC/NCHS, U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP) (cdc.gov)
  14. 14The Texas Tribune, Interactive Map: Life Expectancy by Texas County (texastribune.org)
  15. 15CDC, Stats of the States: Texas leading causes of death (cdc.gov)
  16. 16CDC, Stats of the States: Texas injury death rates (cdc.gov)
  17. 17CDC, Stats of the States: Texas infant mortality (cdc.gov)
  18. 18Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, U.S. life expectancy vs peer nations (healthsystemtracker.org)
  19. 19The Texas Tribune, Texas population reaches 31 million (texastribune.org)
  20. 20U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Texas (census.gov)
  21. 21Texas Demographic Center, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (demographics.texas.gov)
  22. 22World Population Review, Life Expectancy by State 2026 (worldpopulationreview.com)
Max Kuch

About the author

Max Kuch

Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for Texas Will Template. He gathers the numbers from official Texas and US public data, then explains what they mean for anyone thinking about putting their wishes in writing.

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We strongly recommend against a single shared document. A holographic will has to be wholly in one person's handwriting, so two people physically cannot create one valid handwritten will together. Beyond that, joint wills tend to lock the survivor into terms that are painful to change after the first death. The clean solution is two separate mirror wills, one in each spouse's own handwriting, each signed by that spouse. You can make them say almost the same thing while keeping each one independently valid and freely revocable.

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