• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home
About Us Contact Us Advertising
Articles
Budgeting Debt Frugal Insurance Investing Making Money Retirement Saving Money
Tips
Money Saving Tips Trash Audit
Make Money Forums Blogs
Create a Blog Control Panel All Entries All Blogs
Tools
Calculators Prescription Drug Coupons Online Savings Accounts Test Your Knowledge Financial Directory Credit Cards

SavingAdvice.com Blog

Bridging the gap between saving money and investing

Subscribe

 

Join Now or Login

  • Home
    • Advertising
  • Tips
    • Money Saving Tips
    • Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose
  • Make Money
  • Credit Score Guide
  • Forums
  • Blogs
    • Create a Blog
  • Tools
  • Financial Basics
    • Back to Basics: Saving Money
    • Back to Basics: Beginners Guide to Retirement
    • Back to Basics: What Every Child Under 10 Should Know About Personal Finance
    • Back to Financial Basics: Investing In Stocks

Life Expectancy in the U.S. Falls for the First Time in Decades

December 11, 2016 by Amanda Blankenship

Life expectancy
Each year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a study of life expectancy of the average citizen in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control study showed a decline in US life expectancy, possibly due to a basket of causes including Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, respiratory diseases, kidney disease and diabetes.

CDC officials track the rate at which citizens of the U.S. die and how long they are expected to live. According to the latest report the average life expectancy in the United States is 78.8 years (down 0.1 years from 2015).

Life Expectancy in the U.S.

While an overall life expectancy decrease of 0.1 years doesn’t seem large. The more disturbing fact is that the overall death rate has increased for the first time in over a decade, especially in people ages 65 and younger.

“This is a big deal,” said Philip Morgan, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “There’s not a better indicator of well-being than life expectancy. The fact that it’s leveling off in the U.S. is a striking finding.”

What Does the Declining Life Expectancy Mean?

Robert Anderson, Chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the report, said that the findings in this year’s report could simply be a one-time occurrence. This is because analysis from the first half of 2016 suggests that life expectancy will likely be back up for next year’s report.

The group of researchers will have to wait for data to come in for the second half of 2016 to determine if that is the case. Anderson said that the data from 2015 is still worth paying attention to though. Throughout 2015 the death rate in the U.S. increased from 724.6 per 100,000 people to 733.1 per 100,000.

The increasing death rate was enough to make the life expectancy in the United States fall slightly for the first time since 1993. Actually, the life expectancy rate has only dropped a few times in the past 50 years. The last dip in 1993 was due to higher death rates from AIDS, the flu, homicide and accidental deaths throughout the year.

The overall life expectancy dropped from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. For men it fell from 76.5 years to 76.3 and for women it dropped from 81.3 to 81.2.

What Made Life Expectancy in the U.S. Drop?

All in all, the decline in life expectancy was truly driven by increase in deaths from eight of the top 10 leading causes of death in the country. “When you see increases in so many of the leading causes of death, it’s difficult to pinpoint one particular cause as the culprit,” Anderson stated.

The most notable reason behind the death rate increase are deaths from heart disease and stroke. Other notable contributors were deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease and diabetes. Additionally, more Americans died in 2015 from accidental injuries and suicide than recent years.

Key Factors in Increased Death Rates

American obesity could be playing a key role in the increase in deaths from heart disease, diabetes and stroke (and possibly Alzheimer’s). Doctors have also reached a limit of what they are able to do to treat each of these health issues, which may have also affected the life expectancy calculation.

Addiction is playing another key role, according to NPR. Opioid painkillers and heroin abuse fueled the increase in accidental or unintentional injuries in 2015. It has also been noted that the increase in drug abuse could be due to economic factors, including deindustrialization and poverty.

The decrease in life expectancy should be concerning not only because life expectancy is dropping but also because in most other industrialized countries comparable to the U.S. life expectancy is still on the rise – indicating that the United States may be falling behind on key health indicators.

If you enjoyed this article please leave a comment below, rate it five stars or share it on social media.

Photo: jasleen_kaur

Amanda Blankenship
Amanda Blankenship is a full-time stay-at-home mom. Her family recently welcomed their second child, a baby boy, into the world. She loves writing about various topics, including politics and personal finance. In her spare time, Amanda loves to play with her kids, make food from scratch, crochet, and read.

Reader Interactions

What did you think about this article?
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    • Articles
    • Tips
    • Make Money
    • Credit Score Guide
    • Forums
    • Blogs
    • Tools
    • About
    • Contact

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
    Your subscription has been successful.
    Copyright © 2025 SavingAdvice.com. All Rights Reserved.
    • Privacy Policy