NEW YORK
U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, according to report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The decrease for both Black Americans and Latino Americans was even greater: three years.
Close to 74% of the overall life expectancy decline was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 3.3 million Americans died last year, far more than any other year in U.S. history, with COVID-19 accounting for about 11% of those deaths.
Black life expectancy has not fallen so much in one year since the mid-1930s, during the Great Depression. Health officials have not logged Latino life expectancy for nearly as long, but the 2020 decline was the largest recorded one-year drop in the 15 years it has been tracked.
Covid-19 Takes Dramatic Toll on U.S. Life Expectancy
Bloomberg 13 hrs ago John Tozzi
(Bloomberg) Life expectancy in the United States dropped the most in more than seven decades last year as Covid-19 sent hundreds of thousands of Americans to early deaths.
The pandemic s disproportionate toll on communities of color also widened existing gaps in life expectancy between White and Black Americans, according to estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The tally represents an extraordinarily grim accounting of an ongoing catastrophe. The first year of the pandemic delivered a bigger blow to American life expectancy than any year of the Vietnam War, the AIDS crisis or the “deaths of despair” that nudged down life expectancies in the mid-2010s.
US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since WWII
MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
July 21, 2021
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FILE - In this Wednesday, March 10, 2021 file photo, a couple walks through a park at sunset in Kansas City, Mo. According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II. Worse, the decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was a staggering three years. The decrease is due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which health officials say is responsible for close to 74% of the overall life expectancy decline.Charlie Riedel/AP
U S life expectancy dropped by 1 5 years in 2020, driven by the pandemic washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live. It’s an important statistical snapshot of a country’s health that can be influenced both by sustained trends such as obesity as well as more temporary threats like pandemics or war that might not endanger those newborns in their lifetimes.
For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing. But that trend stalled in 2015, for several years, before hitting 78 years, 10 months in 2019. Last year, the CDC said, it dropped to about 77 years, 4 months.
Other findings in the new CDC report: