The average life expectancy in the U.S. is 79, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but that average ranges drastically — from the mid-50s to the mid-90s — based on where people live. A new model called the “universal basic neighborhood” aims to help people in all communities maintain an average life expectancy of at least 80 by spreading health across neighborhoods rather than concentrating it in a few pockets. “Part of the problem we have in many U.S. cities is that we have really, really well-to-do, wealthy neighborhoods with an incredible amount of [health-related] assets, but it doesn’t translate into massive gains in life expectancy,” said Michael Emerson, a fellow in religion and policy at Rice University who led the UBN study. Concentrating health-care resources in those wealthy neighborhoods to increase life expectancy by a couple of years is “a waste of resources” that would be better spent on interventions to boost life expectancy in other places, he said. UBN focuses on “the basic neighborhood — not the most advanced or wealthiest neighborhoods” — for maximum impact on public health, he said. “More meaningful insights emerge when neighborhoods are evaluated in relation to their own potential,” according to a report introducing the model. “This approach shifts the focus from relative comparison to aspirational benchmarking, using a combination of health-supporting goals, regional and national targets, and community-informed values.” Emerson and researchers at the University of Louisville and Simmons College of Kentucky define a UBN as “the minimally acceptable mix of neighborhood health assets for residents to flourish in quality and length of life.” To determine those assets, they identified 35 metrics across four domains: environmental, housing, social and transportation. Those metrics include average maximum temperatures during the warm season, affordable housing, internet access and proximity to acute