(BUTTON) Health ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Search SIGN IN Subscribe First TakeLarry Fink's Take on the Dignity of Photography Larry Fink White HouseWhite House Tells Dissenters in State Department: 'Get With the Program' or Quit White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House, January 30, 2017 in Washington, DC. Barack ObamaBarack Obama Praises Protests Against President Trump's Immigration Ban: 'American Values Are at Stake' President Obama Holds Year-End Press Conference WorldThe History of Walls Is Long. Here's Where Donald Trump Fits In GERMANY-US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION-DEMO Aging Life Expectancy Varies Based on Your Income Alice Park Apr 11, 2016 Money may not buy you happiness (or love) but it might just buy you more time to find them. In the most comprehensive look at life expectancy and income—based on tax returns filed by every American from 1999 to 2014—Raj Chetty, professor of economics at Stanford University, and his colleagues report in JAMA that with more income, people tend to live longer. Some experts had expected that at some point, the relationship would level off so that making more wouldn’t provide any added years, but Chetty’s study showed otherwise. While the amount of added life started to shrink as incomes grew, more money essentially lead to more years of life. Overall, people with the top 1% in income lived nearly 15 years longer than those at the bottom 1%. At the other end of spectrum, lower income was associated with shorter life spans, with no plateau. That suggests that life spans can’t necessarily be traced to something that people are buying to stay alive longer — such as better health care or state-of-the-art drugs. Yes, medical care is important for longevity, but what’s more important, according to this data, are behaviors that can affect health. MORE: Read more secrets of Longevity from TIME's recent special issue The data also showed interesting differences in life expectancies among those with lower incomes depending on where in the U.S. they lived. While previous studies found that people in urban areas tended to have shorter life spans compared to those living in certain suburban and rural areas, presumably because of the higher cost of living in cities and the added stress of being in a densely populated area, Chetty found the opposite to be true. In fact, lower income people living in cities like New York and San Francisco enjoyed longer life expectancies than those living in Detroit or Tulsa. While it’s not clear why, Chetty suspects that there is a trickle-down effect in certain cities where public health efforts to improve living conditions, enforce policies like smoking bans and removal of unhealthy ingredients like trans fats benefit people at all income levels. People with lower incomes in cities with such policies tended to be less obese, smoke less and have better health behaviors than people in other cities that didn’t advocate for such health-promoting behaviors. “Inequalities in life expectancy across areas are more likely explained by different behaviors rather than access to life-saving medical care,” says Chetty. MORE: The Strange Connection Between Saunas and Longevity By analyzing data at the local level, he was able to discern differences in life expectancy that national level data don’t pull out. And that’s important for understanding how public health officials can start to bring some of the benefits to people in other income brackets as well. “The big picture message is that there is a lot of talk about inequality at a national level, but this paper shows that in the context of health, for one of the most important outcomes, life expectancy, the debate should be a local one,” says Chetty. Customer ServiceSite MapPrivacy PolicyAd ChoicesTerms of UseYour California Privacy RightsCareers © 2017 Time Inc. All rights reserved. All products and services featured are based solely on editorial selection. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. SIGN IN SUBSCRIBE ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Home U.S. Politics World Business Tech Health Motto Entertainment Science Newsfeed Living Sports History The TIME Vault Magazine Ideas Parents TIME Labs Money LIFE The Daily Cut Photography Videos TIME Shop Press Room The 100 Most Influential People The 25 Best Inventions of 2015 Future of Giving Global Trade Know Right Now Next Generation Leaders Person of the Year 2015 Top 10 Everything of 2015 Top of the World A Year In Space Subscribe Newsletters Feedback Privacy Policy Your California Privacy Rights Terms of Use Ad Choices RSS TIME Apps TIME for Kids Advertising Reprints and Permissions Site Map Help Customer Service Follow TIME SHARE Share on Facebook Post on Twitter Email this story Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn