Yes, this is correct. Especially with how extreme the values are within the clusters (like in Kentucky), there is almost no chance they occurred by sample-size

Yes, this is correct. Especially with how extreme the values are within the clusters (like in Kentucky), there is almost no chance they occurred by sample-size variance. Sample-size variance might explain some of those little counties with blips out in OK, MS, and TN though. As an aside, the color scheme on the map makes any decrease look substantially more massive. I wish we had a map which was recentered on the national average growth of life expectancy as well.