Life expectancy in the US dropped again

By Alexa Mae Asperin

Published April 11, 2022 10:26am PDT

US life expectancy drops 2.3 years

New research shows life expectancy in the United States is down for the second straight year.

LOS ANGELES - Life expectancy in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row.

That's according to a new study published in medRxiv, with authors suggesting low COVID-19 vaccination rates and reduced COVID pandemic restrictions may have factored into the continued decline.

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Researchers analyzed US mortality data for 2019 through 2021 using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

US life expectancy in 2021 was 76.6 years, which is a decline from 76.99 years in 2020 and 78.86 years in 2019.

For the last two years, US life expectancy dropped by a loss of 2.26 years.

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