ZIP Code DestinyReading the patterns19 of 19

Scene 19 of 19, These comparisons describe places, not what moving would do. Step 1 of 1, The life course.

The chapters of the book

These comparisons describe places, not what moving would do

Diagram

The chapters follow outcomes from pregnancy to deaths before old age, with surroundings and well-being measured at every age

A line of age runs left to right through the six stages of An American life. Birth covers pregnancy and the first year: birthweight, preterm birth, infant deaths, smoking in pregnancy and the number of births. School covers test scores, gender gaps in reading and math, learning growth and school discipline. Becoming an adult covers college, teen births, the adult incomes of children raised in different places and the mental health of young adults. Home, work and money covers jobs and wages, home values, mortgage lending, rent and eviction. Health and care covers health behaviors, chronic conditions, the supply of care, disability, retirement income and Medicare. Early death covers homicide, overdose, alcohol and suicide deaths, the length of a life and the share of the gap that violence accounts for. Beneath the stages, Environment, connection and well-being spans every age, with air pollution, civic life and loneliness, and how people rate their lives. Each chapter names the unit it compares: individuals, neighborhoods, counties or institutions. The chapters use different records and years, and no one person is followed through life.

Stages of life and the outcomes compared

Age

  1. Part II

    Birth

    Pregnancy and the first year

  2. Part III

    School

    The school years

  3. Part IV

    Becoming an adult

    Adolescence and young adulthood

  4. Part V

    Home, work and money

    The working years

  5. Part VII

    Health and care

    Adulthood and old age

  6. Part VIII

    Early death

    Deaths before old age, and life expectancy

At every age

Part VI

Environment, connection and well-being

Each chapter draws on its own records, places and years. No one person is followed from birth to death.

Read the stages in order, from pregnancy and the first year to deaths before old age. Each stage lists its chapters and the unit that each chapter compares across places. Air, social connection and well-being sit beneath the stages because their chapters are not tied to one stage of life. The order of the stages arranges the questions and does not follow one person through life or draw a causal link between stages.Source: Author's outline of the book, revised October 28, 2026. Conceptual diagram; no statistical estimates or weights.

Scenes

Where the comparison starts

  1. Life expectancy falls with each step toward more deprived neighborhoods
  2. Inside each New York borough, neighborhoods differ widely in life expectancy
  3. Home values set most of the deprivation ranking

Growing up

  1. Babies in more deprived counties are more often born small or early
  2. Test scores rise with county income, and gaps between groups remain inside districts
  3. Black and white children raised in the same neighborhood reach different adult incomes
  4. Former students of for-profit colleges earn the least a decade after entry

Adult life

  1. Where local jobs are scarce, residents hold better-paid jobs than the county offers
  2. Whether rent burden rises with deprivation depends on the comparison
  3. More deprived places have less traffic pollution nationally, but more within their own county
  4. Young adults report more distress than a decade ago, and the top income bracket the least at every age
  5. Smoking falls as income rises, while binge drinking climbs
  6. People rate their lives lowest in midlife, while stress declines with age

Reading the patterns

  1. The most deprived places usually stand farther from the national value than the least deprived
  2. Neighborhoods a few kilometers apart can differ by years of life expectancy
  3. Most differences in life expectancy lie inside counties, not between them
  4. Neighborhood types line up on outcomes but blur into one another
  5. Mobility beyond what census measures predict clusters by region
  6. These comparisons describe places, not what moving would do

Read the bookExplore the figuresMethods

These comparisons describe places, not what moving would do

Scene 19 of 19. The chapters of the book.

What to say

Studies with experiments or other stated designs are reported separately in the book, labeled by design. The chapter on what moving can change is a draft. Close by pointing to the reports and methods, not with a recap.

Open in Introduction, Place across an American lifeThe chapter’s report, with every estimate and table

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