There are plenty of things we know can help you live longer. Eat your vegetables. Sleep. Don’t smoke. Call your friends back. But new research suggests you might want to add one more: get yourself near the ocean. And if you already live there? Congratulations. You might outlive the rest of us.
A study from Ohio State University examined over 66,000 people and compared their longevity based on their proximity to water. Coastal residents were more likely to live past the average age of 79. People in cities near lakes or rivers didn’t fare as well, often dying slightly younger.
“Coastal residents were expected to live a year or more longer,” said environmental health scientist Jianyong Wu. “Those in more urban areas near inland rivers and lakes were likely to die by about 78 or so.”
Why Is Living Near the Ocean Good For You?
Researchers aren’t exactly sure why. It may be related to cleaner air, milder temperatures, and improved access to outdoor space. People who live on the coast also tend to have more financial resources, and this can be beneficial. But that doesn’t explain everything.
What surprised researchers the most was that not all water is the same. Inland water in rural areas provided people with a slight increase in life expectancy. But in urban environments, it didn’t help at all. It might even have made things worse. Factors such as pollution, poverty, flooding, and a lack of safe spaces to move around seem to cancel out whatever benefits blue spaces might offer.
“We were surprised to find such a significant and clear difference between those who live near coastal waters and those who live near inland waters,” Wu said.
The team expected any water-adjacent area to come with some benefit. Instead, the ocean had a more substantial effect than lakes or rivers, and they don’t fully understand why. Maybe it’s the light, the breeze, or the rhythm of the tides. Perhaps it’s simply that coastal living encourages people to slow down in a way that urban life doesn’t permit.
So far, there’s no clear answer. Just one more reason to romanticize a house by the sea, and one more mystery in how the natural world shapes us in ways we still don’t understand.
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