Silicon Valley: Indian immigrants have the highest life expectancy among California residents, exceeding the State average by almost six years, according to a recently released study.

The study, titled "The Demographics of Mortality in California" and conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), revealed that immigrants in general outlive the US born residents.

Life expectancy for immigrants in California was 81.5 years, compared to 77.4 years for US natives.

Almost all of the Asian subgroups, except Laotians and Cambodians, have life expectancies exceeding the state average, according to the report, which was based on data from the 2000 US Census and the California Department of Health Services.

The study concluded that among the 19 ethnic groups studied, which included white, black, Mexicans, Cubans, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese groups, Asian Indians had the highest life expectancy of 84.3 years. Indians were followed by Vietnamese (83.8 years), Chinese (83.7 years) and Koreans (83.2 years).

The most extreme disparity revealed by the study was that US-born Chinese females outlive US-born black males by an average of 20 years.

For every ethnic group, women have lower mortality rates, thus living longer than men. Among Indians, female life expectancy is 88.1 years, compared to 81.5 for male immigrants.