Benefits of Education #1: Lengthen Your Life

More education means a longer life, at according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issue brief released last week.

The gap in life expectancy between individuals with any college education increased by 30 percent between 1990 and 2000. The gap occurred because of life expectancy increases by individuals with more education. The life expectancy of less educated individuals remained stagnant over that same period of time.

As with everything, this most likely isn’t a cause and effect relationship. Rather it is an indication of living conditions, health style choices, and other factors such as socioeconomic status. This is important to note because individuals – whether college educated or not – who make similar life styles choices will see the same results. The real question is what are educated doing – or not doing – that is prolonging their life.