US: Life expectancy falls for second year in a row due to Covid – News

Life expectancy in the U.S. will drop by nearly a year in 2021, after posting a nearly year-and-a-half drop in 2020, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the nation’s health officials announced.

Last year’s life expectancy was 76.1 years, the lowest number since 1996, according to preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

From 1921-1923, life expectancy declined for two consecutive years.

In 2020, the life expectancy of Americans will be 77 years. In 2019, it reached 78.8.

“The decrease in life expectancy since 2019 is largely due to the epidemic,” the CDC explained.

Coronavirus-related deaths accounted for three-quarters of the decline in 2020 and nearly half of the decline in 2020.

About 15% of the reduction in life expectancy in 2021 could be attributed to an increase in deaths related to “accidents and unintentional injuries,” especially overdoses.

The life expectancy gap between men and women widened from 5.7 years in 2020 to 5.9 years in 2021, the largest since 1996.

Life expectancy for women in the United States in 2021 is 79.1 years and 73.2 years for men.

The most significant reduction in 2021 occurred among Native Americans (-1.9 years compared to 2020), with only 65.2 years expected. Then whites (-1 year), 76.4 years, and African Americans (-0.7 years), 70.8 years.

According to a previous CDC report, Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2021, just behind cardiovascular disease and cancer in 2020.

After a spike in early 2022, Covid-related deaths in the US have seen a significant drop, but the country still has an average of 400 deaths from the disease.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than one million people have died of Covid in the country.