In Arizona, Native Americans more likely to die prematurely

Native Americans in Pima County struggle with adequate healthcare access and are more likely to die prematurely than their non-Native neighbors, county and state data show.

The average life expectancy for county residents from 2018-20 was about 78.5 years. In that same span, Pima County’s “American Indian/Alaska Native population” lived to be about 69.7 years old, a difference of nearly nine years, according to the Pima Health Data Portal by the Pima County Health Department.

From 2017-19, while overall life expectancy was one year longer (79.5), Pima’s Native American population had a life expectancy of about 72.3 years, according to the portal.

Life expectancy across all demographics in the Arizona was about 76 years from 2014-19, according to the state’s Health Status and Vital Statistics report of 2019. For Arizona’s Native American population, the median age at death was 62 years, an average of 16 years shorter, according to the report.

“Among American Indians, nearly eight out of ten deaths (77.8%) were premature,” the report said.

About 88% of Pima County residents have some form of health insurance, according to the county. For Native Americans it drops to 75%.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

But the Arizona Indian Health System Primary Care Workforce Assessment in June 2021, the Arizona Advisory Council on Indian Health Care (AACIHC) says the state ranks “44th of all states in total active primary care physicians at 77.9 per 100,000 population.” An additional 1,941 primary care physicians will be needed by 2030 to close this gap, the council says.

The University of Arizona’s Center for Rural Health’s 2023 physician workforce report found that Arizona meets about 39% of its primary care physician need, ranking 42nd in the nation in total active primary care physicians.

Being able to afford health care also is an issue.

From 2017-21, Native Americans in Pima County had the lowest per capita income of any race at $16,703, nearly half the county-average of $33,016, according to the county’s health data portal.

The official poverty rate in the U.S. in 2022 was 11.5%, with 37.9 million people in poverty, according to census data. That year, according to the Making Action Possible (MAP) dashboard created by the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, nearly 32% of Tucson’s Native American population lived in poverty. That’s nearly 10% higher than the national average for Native Americans and over double the average poverty rate for the county.