The Independent reports.

American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

By Leonard Doyle in Washington

Thursday, 17 July 2008

The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.

and later

Asian-American males have the best quality of life and black Americans the lowest, with a staggering 50-year life expectancy gap between the two groups.

Wow! My reading of the report shows an 8-year difference between the best and worst states, and a 19.4 year difference between Asian-American females and African-American males. Surely this is bad enough without having to exaggerate? Can anybody figure out how the Independent came up with their figures? I thought they were a generally reliable paper, though maybe I should reconsider...