Story at a glance
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new report detailing the country’s life expectancy rates.
- Nationally, the U.S. life expectancy rate dropped to 77 years in 2020, a nearly two-year decline from 78.8 years in 2019.
- New York, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana saw the largest drops in life expectancy, all losing about three years from 2019 to 2020.
The U.S. life expectancy rate dropped to its lowest average in nearly two decades, but Americans in certain states fared better than others with rates ranging drastically across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new report detailing life expectancy rates across the U.S. and found that average life expectancy dropped to 77 years in 2020, down from 78.8 years in 2019. The CDC attributed the decline mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in unintentional injuries like drug overdose deaths.
Among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at 80.7 years while Mississippi had the lowest at 71.9 years.
The CDC also compared life expectancy at the state level from 2019 to 2020 and found these states fared the worst:
- New York
Life expectancy dropped three years in New York to 77.7 years in 2020. It was previously 80.7 years in 2019.
- Washington, D.C.
Life expectancy in the District of Columbia dropped 2.7 years, from 78 years in 2019 to 75.3 years in 2020.
- Louisiana
Life expectancy dropped 2.6 years in Louisiana, from 75.7 years in 2019 to 73.1 years in 2020.
- New Jersey
Life expectancy also dropped by 2.6 years in New Jersey. The state’s life expectancy in 2019 was 80.1 years and fell to 77.5 years in 2020.
- Arizona
Life expectancy dropped by 2.5 years in Arizona, coming in at 78.8 years in 2019 and dropping down to 76.3 in 2020.
Hawaii, New Hampshire and Maine experienced the smallest decline at just under one year from 2019 to 2020.
Life expectancy was defined as the moment of birth through consecutive ages in successive calendar years and is driven by multiple factors, including socioeconomic circumstances, public health care systems and policy choices.
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Hawaii, Washington state, Minnesota, California and Massachusetts were ranked as the top five states with the highest life expectancy, all averaging 79 to 80 years.
Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky fared the worst, earning the CDC’s lowest ranking with life expectancy rates closer to 72 and 73 years.
The CDC also found that there was about a 5.7-year difference in male and female life expectancy in 2020. Some states had even higher differences, with Washington, D.C., experiencing a seven-year difference between male and female life expectancy, Mississippi at 6.6 years and Illinois at six years.
The state with the lowest difference in male and female life expectancy was Utah, averaging at about four years.
The U.S. fares significantly worse than other developed countries, with the Commonwealth Fund finding Japan has an average life expectancy of 84.4 years, Spain and Switzerland at 84 years and Canada averaging 82.3 years.
Researchers have argued that the U.S. experiences avoidable mortality, defined as death before the age of 75, from conditions that are either preventable through effective public health and primary prevention or treatable when detected early and effective care management is provided.
Death from diabetes, certain infections, breast and colon cancer, appendicitis are just some examples of avoidable mortality.
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