Life expectancy in the U.S. ticked up by the slimmest of margins in 2018, from 78.6 to 78.7 years, reversing a trend that has seen the measure fall steadily from its all-time high in 2014. The improved numbers are being credited to a reduction in the number of fatal drug overdoses for the first time in 28 years and a decline in the death rate from cancer, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. However, according to The Washington Post, 2018’s life-expectancy figure is identical to 2010’s, so progress has stalled over the decade, and the U.S. is continuing to fall behind other wealthy countries. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said: “It’s good news that there was an increase in life expectancy. That’s what we want to see, but it doesn’t really alter the long-term picture. We still have a very bleak situation at this point.”