What does it take to live a longer, healthier life? Education, many studies show, is the answer. The New York Times features (free registration required) an explanation of this conclusion.

The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income.

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

What may make the biggest difference is keeping young people in school. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life and vastly improved health decades later, in old age.