Residents of the San Geronimo Valley should welcome the news that the average lifespan from Lagunitas to Woodacre is 90 years old—the highest in West Marin. While not quite as high as the bayside towns of Sausalito or Tiburon, the statistic dwarfs the state average by 11 years and the county average by five, according to a new interactive digital map launched last month by Marin Health and Human Services.

The map is meant to highlight inter-county inequities and how they match statewide statistics. It’s the result of data gathered after the pandemic, when inequities to food access, transportation and health care were most apparent. In addition to life expectancy, the map has data on age, sex, heart disease, income, homeownership, mental health, number of overdoses, access to green space, diversity and more. 

“This data is really to inform local community action,” said Matt Willis, a public health officer for Marin County. “We want communities to have some visibility on where inequities might exist. Since the pandemic, we have organized our response around recognizing that there are specific community-level barriers. From there we developed four community response teams in West Marin, San Rafael, Novato and southern Marin.”

Unlike the more populated areas of central and southern Marin, West Marin’s towns do not have their own census tract. Instead, our region is separated into four census areas: Bolinas and Stinson Beach, Inverness and Olema, the San Geronimo Valley, and Tomales Bay’s east shore from Dillon Beach down to Point Reyes Station. The latter tract also includes north Novato. This division leaves West Marin in the dust in terms of specificity. 

“For West Marin, it’s a more blunt descriptive tool,” Dr. Willis said. “We don’t see life expectancy at the town level for West Marin and we’re unable to stratify beneath this.”

Viewers can see how each quadrant compares to one another as well as to other towns in Marin and to state averages. Though West Marin’s rankings in health, income, home ownership and access to green space rank above both county and statewide averages, it is notably below those averages in its lack of ethnic and age diversity, according to the map. 

According to the California Healthy Places Index, a similar interactive tool launched by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California last year, Inverness and Olema rank higher than 89 percent of census tracts in California in terms of overall health. 

There are many reasons why Marin ranks higher on these kinds of health indexes than other counties, including proximity and access to quality education, nutritious foods and parks, and higher rates of exercise. A study published by Novato’s Buck Institute on Aging said that wealth is by far the biggest factor in contributing to longevity. Marin’s household median income is $121,000—or 63 percent higher than the national median. 

 

To view the dashboard, go to https://www.marinhhs.org/zone-dashboard