National data on life expectancy at age 25 illustrates the contribution of both race and SES. These data reveal that there is a black-white difference in life expectancy at age 25 of 4.4 years for men and 4.3 years for women.51 There are also large life expectancy differences by income within each racial population. High income white males outlive their low income counterparts by 7.9 years compared to an income gap of 8.6 years among African American males. The income gap is 3.3 years among white women, and 5.0 among black women. Thus, the gap in life expectancy by income for white men and black men and women is larger than the black-white gap. Moreover, at every level of income, white males and females live two to four years longer than their African American peers. Similarly, differences in cancer mortality by education within each race are much larger than the overall racial differences. For example, the mortality rate for white men with 8 years of education or less was almost nine times greater than that of their peers with 17
