SLIPPING

American Life Expectancy Falls at the Steepest Rate in a Century

Average life expectancy took a three-year cut.

The average life expectancy for Americans fell at the steepest rate in almost a century in 2020 and 2021, according to federal health researchers. In 2019, the average American would be expected to live until the age of 79. Now, after the ravages of the COVID pandemic, the average American is expected to die around three years earlier, aged 76. The greatest shortening of average life expectancy has been seen among Alaska Natives and Native Americans, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Those groups saw a decline of four years in their average life expectancy in 2020 alone. Rises in drug overdoses, accidental deaths, and certain disease contributed to the drop in life expectancy for the whole population alongside the toll from COVID. The drop represented the biggest decline in life expectancy since the beginning of the 1920s.