Jakarta -Life expectancy in the United States has increased along with the decline in deaths from COVID-19 and drug overdoses.
In 2019, someone born in the US had a life expectancy of 79 years. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy dropped to 77 years. In 2021, life expectancy dropped again – to 76.1 years.
After a decline of 2.4 years between 2019 and 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that life expectancy increased by nearly a full year in 2023. People born in 2023 are now expected to live for 78.4 years, although there is still a slight difference from pre-pandemic data, which was 78.8 years.
“The increase this year – 0.9 years – has never happened before the pandemic,” said Ken Kochanek, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics who co-authored the report to NBC News.
“Life expectancy in the United States has never increased or decreased by more than a tenth or two-tenths.” However, when COVID occurred, there was a very significant decline, and now we are experiencing a very significant increase in life expectancy. So, there has been a very significant increase in life expectancy,” he explained.
These new findings are based on the analysis of death certificates from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The results show that the overall death rate for the US population decreased by 6 percent.
However, Kochanek noted that the decline in COVID deaths does not mean the threat of the virus has disappeared.
“It will not disappear completely,” he said, adding that it is still unknown whether deaths will continue to decline before reaching a more predictable annual rate.
According to the new report, the top five causes of death in the US last year were heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Death rates declined for nine of the top 10 causes in 2023, while the cancer death rate remained unchanged.
