US Life Expectancy Is Lowest In Decades

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After a historic drop in 2020, 1life expectancy at birth in the US took another 2significant hit in 2021 -- falling to about 76 years -- the lowest it¡¯s been in the US since 1996 and the biggest 2 year 3decline in a century.

¡°It 4boggles my mind still. We spent 4 trillion dollars on healthcare in the United States and our life expectancy even before the pandemic was going down.¡±

COVID-19 was the 5driving factor for the lower life expectancy with deaths from the virus 6contributing to half of the decline from 2020 to 2021. Deaths from 7unintentional injuries, about half of which were due to 8drug overdose, were the second leading cause for the decline. The report says that death rates for flu and 9pneumonia went down in 2021. And if it weren¡¯t for these ¡°10offsetting effects¡± the decline in US life expectancy would have been even greater.

¡°Other similar countries also had a drop of about a half a year during that first year of COVID but they¡¯ve actually gone up over this past year returning back. United States continues to go down in terms of overall life expectancy whereas other 11similar countries have started to 12rebound.¡±

The CDC says the biggest decline in life expectancy was among American Indian and Alaska native people. At 65.2 years, the life expectancy for American Indians in 2021 was equal to the overall US life expectancy in 1944.