WHICH STATES HAVE AMERICANS WHO LIVE THE LONGEST?: A growing number of Americans are living to age 100, with the centenarian population rising 65.8 percent over the past three decades, from 32,194 people who were age 100 or older in 1980 to 53,364 centenarians in 2010, according to new Census Bureau data. This increase came at the same time as the total population increased just 36.3 percent. A U.S. News & World Report story said that people who live to be 100 have certain living conditions in common, with a large majority of them living in urban areas, for instance, and more living in the Northeast or Midwest. The states with the highest percentage of centenarians are:
- 1. North Dakota -- They make up 0.032 percent of the state's population, which is 3.2 per 10,000 people.
- 2. South Dakota -- 0.03 percent
- 3. Iowa -- 0.028 percent
- 4. Nebraska -- 0.027 percent
- 5. Connecticut -- 0.026 percent
- 6. New York --0.024 percent
- 6. Rhode Island -- 0.024 percent
- 8. Massachusetts -- 0.023 percent
- 8. Minnesota -- 0.023 percent
