And for all but five of those years, you'll likely be in pretty good health.

If you're 65 and living in Hawaii, here's some good news: Odds are you'll live another 21 years.

U. S. life expectancy has been growing steadily for decades, and is now nearly 79 for newborns.

The World Health Organization keeps "healthy life expectancy" statistics on nearly 200 countries, and the numbers are used to determine the most sensible ages to set retirement and retirement benefits.

"What ultimately matters is not just the length of life but the quality of life." said Matt Stiefel, who oversees population health research for Kaiser Permanente.

But the measure is still catching on in the United States; the CDC study is the first to make estimates for all 50 states.

Southern states tend to have higher rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and a range of other illnesses.

Overall, Americans who make it to 65 have about 19 years of life ahead of them, including nearly 14 in relatively good health, the CDC estimated.

But the South and parts of the Midwest clearly had lower numbers. That's not a surprise, experts said.

These are issues that build up over a lifetime, so it's doubtful that moving to Hawaii after a life time in the South will suddenly give you more healthy years, they say. Thank you.

They also have problems that affect health, like less education and more poverty.