US life expectancy falls to lowest level since 1996 amid fentanyl epidemic and Covid hangover
Life expectancy at birth is now 76.4 years, the lowest in 25 years when it was 76.1 years
Covid was the third leading cause of death in 2021 for the second year in a row
Accidental injuries, including drug overdoses, were the fourth leading cause
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Life expectancy in the US has fallen to its lowest level since 1996 – to just 76.4 years – due to the fentanyl epidemic and the Covid crisis, official data has revealed.
Facts Released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that life expectancy in 2021 fell for the second consecutive year, compared to 78.8 years in 2019 and 77.0 years in 2020.
It is now at its lowest level since 1996, when it was 76.1 years.
Covid was the third leading cause of death in 2021 for the second year in a row, and a fivefold increase in drug overdose deaths over the past decade has also contributed to the decline.
Life expectancy at birth for both sexes in 2021 is 76.4 years – the lowest level since 1996, when it was 76.1 years. The life expectancy of men fell more than that of women between 2021 and 2020: life expectancy of men by 0.7 years and that of women by 0.6 years
In 2021, a total of 3,464,231 deaths were recorded in the US. The 10 leading causes of death accounted for 74.5 percent of all deaths in the US by 2021. Unintentional injuries include drug overdoses
The number of teens from fentanyl overdose (grey line) has tripled since the start of the Covid pandemic (dotted line between 2019 and 2020). Scientists say this may be related to the synthetic opioid being mixed with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin
The highest point was 78.9 years in 2014. Before the pandemic, in 2019, life expectancy was back close to that level.
In 2020, the Covid crisis caused the largest annual drop in life expectancy since World War II.
Heart disease was still the leading cause of death in the US, followed by cancer. Covid caused more than 4 million deaths in 2021 — almost 20 percent more than the 350,831 deaths in the first year of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, illegal versions of fentanyl have replaced heroin in many markets, increasing overdose deaths.
The CDC report includes drug overdoses in accidental injuries — which was the fourth leading cause of death in the past two years.
The number of drug overdose deaths among American teens doubled between 2019 and 2021, even as illicit substance use declined. Deaths caused by fentanyl alone increased by 182 percent.