U.S. life expectancy declined by nearly two years in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics in a new report released Wednesday said life expectancy in the U.S. declined from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years in 2020, ABC News and The Washington Post report. This was even more than previously thought, as the CDC reported a 1.5-year decline earlier this year based on provisional data. There were about 350,000 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020.
"The thing that stands out to me is just this staggering decline," NCHS mortality statistics chief Dr. Robert Anderson told ABC News. "I know 1.8 years doesn't seem like a whole lot but, on a population scale, that's a huge decline in life expectancy."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In fact, it was the biggest decline in life expectancy since World War II. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in 2020, and it was the "primary driver in the decline in life expectancy and the increase in mortality," Anderson told ABC. Overall, there were about 530,000 more deaths in the U.S. in 2020 than there were the year before. According to CNN, the death rate increased 43 percent for Hispanic males, 28 percent for Black males, and 13 percent for white males.
The latest data comes after estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau showed population growth fell to a record low, increasing just 0.1 percent from July 2020 to July 2021.
-
Believe it when AI see it: have we reached a deepfake turning point in politics?Today’s Big Question AI ‘slopaganda’ is becoming a ‘feature’ of modern elections
-
Daylight Saving Time: a Spanish controversyUnder the Radar Spain’s prime minister has called on the EU to remove biannual clock changes in Europe
-
Quiz of The Week: 25 – 31 OctoberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Covid-19 mRNA vaccines could help fight cancerUnder the radar They boost the immune system
-
FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the rightSpeed Read The drug in question is a generic version of mifepristone, used to carry out two-thirds of US abortions
-
The new Stratus Covid strain – and why it’s on the riseThe Explainer ‘No evidence’ new variant is more dangerous or that vaccines won’t work against it, say UK health experts
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shotSpeed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
