What Happens to People Who Move to the Beach? A Massive New Study Shows an Unexpected Benefit

I really like the town where my family lives, and I sometimes joke that there’s only one way I could think of to improve it.

That would be to pick the whole thing up and move it about 30 miles to the southeast, so that we’d be on the beach. While that’s really just my personal preference — and if you knew me in real life, you’d know it’s a pretty deeply felt one — it turns out there might be a significant benefit if we could ever pull it off.

Writing in the journal Environmental Research, researchers from the college of public health at The Ohio State University said they studied population data from 66,000 census tracts around the United States, and compared the life expectancy of people in each tract. Bottom line: Live near the beach

Then, they correlated the data based on how far each tract was located from “blue space,” which is the term used in urban planning to refer to areas dominated by surface water bodies (lakes, oceans, bays, etc.) or watercourses (rivers, streams, etc.).

Here’s what they found:

People who lived in urban areas near inland bodies of water — things like lakes and rivers — actually had lower life expediencies than those who weren’t near water at all. People who lived in rural areas near inland bodies of water had a life expectancy benefit over those who lived in urban areas. But people who lived within 30 miles of an ocean or gulf — regardless of whether they lived in urban or rural environments — had longer life expediencies than those who didn’t.

“Overall, the coastal residents were expected to live a year or more longer than the 79-year average, and those who lived in more urban areas near inland rivers and lakes were likely to die by about 78 or so,” lead researcher Jianyong “Jamie” Wu was quoted as saying in a statement accompanying the research. ‘Coastal residents tend to have longer life expectancy’

Theories as to why people who live near the coast live longer include:

Milder temperatures and better air quality than those who live inland. Better transportation options which is an advantage both in day-to-day living and in the ability to get medical attention quickly when needed. Less susceptibility to drought, which, along with very high rainfall, is associated with worse health in previous studies. Higher incomes. “Extensive research has consistently demonstrated the significant positive impact of higher income levels on life expectancy,” according to the study, “which effectively explains why coastal residents tend to have longer life expectancy.”

I acknowledge, of course, that the last cause — higher incomes — is a bit more problematic in terms of finding cause and effect; it’s likely that wealthy people are more likely to be able to afford to live near the coast than those who aren’t.

(I invite you to do a little bit of dream-searching on Zillow to see for yourself.)

“On the other side,” said Yanni Cao, a postdoctoral researcher who also worked on the study, “pollution, poverty, lack of safe opportunities to be physically active, and an increased risk of flooding are likely drivers of these differences.” Guess where we’re going?

We should point out here that the health and life expectancy differences between living near an inland body of water and living on the beach, so to speak, were something the researchers hadn’t expected to find.

“We thought it was possible that any type of ‘blue space’ would offer some beneficial effects, and we were surprised to find such a significant and clear difference,” Wu said in the same statement accompanying the research.

Also, we’re talking about one year of life expectancy, which is significant for statistical purposes but maybe not enough to prompt a stampede toward the shore.

Still, I’m glad I found the study — and that maybe not coincidentally, that I managed to come across it just before heading out on summer vacation.

Three guesses where we’re going.