CDC: 2021 to 2022 Saw Increase in U.S. Life Expectancy

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- From 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in life expectancy, which was seen for both sexes and across racial/ethnic groups, according to a November Vital Statistics Rapid Release report, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Elizabeth Arias, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues examined provisional life expectancy estimates for 2022 using data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The researchers note that life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years in 2022, which was 1.1 years higher than 76.4 years in 2021. For males and females, life expectancy at birth increased to 74.8 and 80.2 years in 2022, representing increases of 1.3 and 0.9 years, respectively, from 2021. The difference in life expectancy between the sexes was 5.4 years in 2022, which marked a decrease from 5.8 years in 2021. From 2021 to 2022, life expectancy increased by 2.3, 2.2, 1.6, 1.0, and 0.8 years for the American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic, Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, Asian non-Hispanic, and White non-Hispanic populations, respectively.

"U.S. life expectancy at birth for 2022, based on near-final data, was 77.5 years, an increase of 1.1 years from 2021 (76.4 years)," the authors write. "This increase does not fully offset the loss of 2.4 years of life expectancy between 2019 and 2021 that resulted mostly from increases in excess deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

Abstract/Full Text