New data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics shows overall life expectancy at birth increased by 1.1 years in 2022.
The increase helps to offset the loss of 2.4 years between 2019 and 2021, which was mostly due to excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall U.S. life expectancy at birth increased by 1.1 years in 2022, but still trails pre-pandemic levels
CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics
Assumptions about life expectancy can make a dramatic difference in retirement strategies, including when to start collecting Social Security. People who underestimate their life expectancy could save too little for retirement and risk running out of money, while people who overestimate how long they’ll live might stay in the workforce longer than they need to or spend less money in retirement than they could.
Broken down by gender, males regained 1.3 years of the 2.8 years they lost between 2019 and 2021. Life expectancy for men rose from 73.5 years in 2021 to 74.8 years in 2022.
Women didn’t see as much of an increase as men in 2022, but female life expectancy still outpaces male life expectancy. Women saw life expectancy increase by 0.9 years in 2022 after a 2.1-year loss during the pandemic. Life expectancy for women rose from 79.3 years in 2021 to 80.2 years in 2022.
American Indian-Alaskan Native people had the greatest increase in life expectancy. That subset saw a 2.3-year increase in life expectancy in 2022, after a 6.2-year loss between 2019 and 2021. The Hispanic population has the second biggest increase with a gain of 2.2 years, boosting life expectancy from 77.8 years to 80 years.
Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years that a newborn would live if death patterns of the population at the time of their birth did not change during their lifetime. The 2022 increase largely resulted from decreases in death due to COVID-19, which accounted for roughly 84% of the increase. Drops in mortality due to heart disease, accidental injuries, cancer, and homicide also contributed to the increase.
Life expectancy would be higher if not for increases in death due to influenza, pneumonia, perinatal conditions, kidney disease, nutritional deficiencies, and congenital malformations. Additionally, last year saw the highest number of suicides on record, increasing from 48,183 in 2021 to 49,449 in 2022. The rate of suicides per 100,000 was 14.3 in 2022, the highest since 1941.
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