Los Angeles County residents are living longer than ever — and about than 2.6 years longer than the average American — with a life expectancy of more than 80 years, public health officials announced Tuesday. But economic and racial disparities persist, with some minorities and low-income residents dying younger than wealthier neighbors.

The average life expectancy in the county was 80.3 years,according to a Department of Public Health analysis of county mortality data for 2006, the most recent year available. Since 1991, the first year such information was available, the average life expectancy has steadily increased from 75.8 years.

Professor E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, said the county’s wealthier, healthier residents probably skewed the average life expectancy higher.

&#8226 Read the full Los Angeles Times story.