Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and getting enough rest, can be challenging at times.

You try to live healthy hoping to live long enough to see your grandkids grow up and if you're lucky enough your great-grandkids too, but some things are simply beyond your control.

Here's the big question.

What's the secret to living a long and healthy life?

It's definitely the answer we're all looking for, right?!

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I always love hearing how people who are celebrating their 100th birthday respond when asked what the secret to living to be 100 years old is.

I've heard people say it's having a positive outlook on life, managing stress, having a purpose, and I've even heard people say having a glass of wine every day.

My amazing grandmother lived to be 102.

She would always say "Everything in moderation." I just love that answer.

The State Where People Live The Longest: Is It New Jersey?

Stacker used data to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest.

It provides the total number of seniors in each state, ranks health care for seniors, gives the median age, and provides a breakdown by sex and race.

Read More: New Jersey Is Ranked One Of The Happiest States In The Country

Certain risk factors also play a big role in life expectancy.

They give the example that women tend to engage in less risky behavior than men and suffer fewer vehicular accidents.

So where does New Jersey rank?

Here's the average life expectancy in each state.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

Gallery Credit: Hannah Lang

The 10 best and 10 worst states to retire

For their 2024 report, Bankrate.com analyzed factors such as cost of living, health care and crime to rank the 50 states as places where you might want to consider retirement. Visit this link for the complete report.

Gallery Credit: Bankrate/New Jersey 101.5