Life expectancy in the United States fell from 77 to 76.4 years in 2021, and stood at the same level as in 1996, a drop driven by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the opioid drug crisis, according to the data. from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Thursday.
The difference in life expectancy between women and men was 5.8 years, which represents an increase of 0.1 years compared to 2020.
Heart
disease, cancer and COVID-19
were the top three causes of death;
in total, more than 3.4 million people in the US died in 2021, about 80,000 more than the previous year.
Artistic installation of white flags to commemorate those who died from COVID-19 in Washington on October 2, 2021Jose Luis Magana / AP
There were 107,000 drug-related deaths, nearly 16% more than the 92,000 in 2020. Overdoses related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl rose 22%, from 17.8 to 21.8 per 100,000 people.
Chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis became the ninth leading cause of death in 2021, while influenza and pneumonia dropped from the top ten list.
The other leading causes (unintentional injuries, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and kidney disease) remained in the same positions as in 2020.
This drop in life expectancy (what a baby born this year is expected to live on average) erases the medical advances of the last quarter century, explained Steven Woolf, a professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, to the USA Today newspaper. .
"The fact that the US, in 2020 and 2021, did much worse than other countries is a warning sign that this health disadvantage that it has had for many years is getting worse," he added.
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Mortality rate goes up
The age-adjusted mortality rate increased 5.3%, from 835.4 deaths per 100,000 population in 2020 to 879.7 in 2021. By demographic groups, it rose 2.3% for Hispanic women;
6.1% for non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native men and 7.3% for women;
1.3% for non-Hispanic black women;
7.2% for non-Hispanic white men;
and 6.9% for non-Hispanic white women, according to the CDC.
These data are released on the same day that the Census Bureau estimated that the population of the United States grew by 1.2 million people in 2022, to reach 333.2 million, an increase driven largely by immigration.
