Life expectancy in the US fell by nearly a year in 2021, after already falling by a year and a half in 2020, largely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, US health officials said today.
Last year, it dropped to 76.1 years, according to preliminary numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is the lowest level it has reached since 1996.
It is also the largest decline in two years since the one recorded from 1921 to 1923.
In comparison, American life expectancy was 77 years in 2020 versus 78.8 in 2019.
“The decline in life expectancy since 2019 is primarily due to the pandemic,” the CDC, the main federal public health agency, said.
Deaths attributable to COVID-19 or its complications accounted for nearly three-quarters of the decline recorded in 2020 and one-second of the decline in 2021.
About 15% of the decline recorded in 2021 is also attributable to an increase in deaths due to “unintentional accidents and injuries,” a category that specifically includes drug or medication overdose deaths.
Health authorities note that the gap in life expectancy between men and women has widened, going from 5.7 years in 2020 to 5.9 in 2021. This is the largest gap seen since 1996.
In 2021, American women had a life expectancy of 79.1 years, compared to 73.2 for American men.
In 2021, the largest decline in life expectancy was among Native Americans (–1.9 years compared to 2020), followed by Whites (–1 year), followed by African Americans (–0.7 years) . In the indigenous category, life expectancy is only 65.2 years. For blacks it is 70.8, compared to 76.4 for whites.
COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2021, as it will be in 2020, behind cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a previous CDC report.
After their most recent outbreak in the winter of 2021-2022, deaths due to COVID-19 have decreased significantly recently in the US, although the country continues to record about 400 a day. It is the first and only country in the world where the number of victims of the new coronavirus pandemic has exceeded one million dead. In 2021, over 460,000 deaths were recorded.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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