Life expectancy decreases in the US once again

• The estimated U.S. lifespan has shortened by nearly three years in the first two years of the pandemic.
• The last comparable decrease happened in the early 1940s, during World War II.
• Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby might expect to live.

According to a government report being issued on Wednesday, the U.S. life expectancy declined for the second year in a row in 2021, dropping by almost a year from 2020.

The predicted American longevity has decreased by approximately three years in the first two years of the Covid-19 epidemic. The most recent comparable decline took place at the height of World War II, in the early 1940s.

About half of the drop in 2021, a year when immunizations became widely accessible but new coronavirus types produced waves of hospitalizations and fatalities, was attributed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to Covid-19. Long-standing issues like drug overdoses, heart disease, suicide, and chronic liver disease are other factors in the decline.

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This is a bad situation. It was terrible before, and it’s become worse, according to demographer Samuel Preston of the University of Pennsylvania.

According to the death rates of the period, life expectancy is an estimate of the typical number of years a baby born in a certain year might expect to live. According to Robert Hummer, a researcher at the University of North Carolina who studies population health patterns, it is “the most basic indication of population health in this country.”

Long-term increases in the U.S. life expectancy stopped before the pandemic.

In 2019, it was 78 years and 10 months old. It decreased to 77 years in 2020. It decreased to almost 76 years, 1 month last year.

That low point was last reached in 1996.

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For some racial groups, the pandemic’s declines were worse, and some gaps grew wider. For instance, since the epidemic started, the average life expectancy for American Indian and Alaska Native people has decreased by more than 6 1/2 years, and it now stands at 65 years. Asian Americans now have a life expectancy of 83 1/2, down about two years during the same time period.

However, according to CDC officials, it’s likely that the decreases in 2020 and 2021 will mark the country’s first two consecutive years of decreased life expectancy since the early 1960s.

Results of the study:

Women’s life expectancy in the US decreased by around 10 months from just under 80 years in 2020 to just over 79 years in 2021. Life expectancy for men dropped a full year, from about 74 years to 73.

The majority of the decrease was caused by Covid-19 fatalities. Deaths from unintentional accidents, largely from drug overdoses, which claimed the lives of a record-breaking 107,000 Americans last year, were the second largest contributor.

White people saw the second biggest drop among racial and ethnic groups, with life expectancy falling one year, to about 76 years, 5 months. The third-largest loss was experienced by Black people, who saw their age drop by more than eight months to 70 years and 10 months.

In 2020, the life expectancy of Hispanic Americans has decreased significantly by four years. But their life expectancy fell to roughly 77 years and 7 months in 2021, down about two months. Preston thinks good vaccination rates among Hispanics played a role.

The report also suggests gains against suicide are being undone.

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