{"id":561396,"date":"2026-02-02T17:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/561396\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:38:11","slug":"u-s-life-expectancy-hit-an-all-time-high-in-2024-cdc-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/561396\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. life expectancy hit an all-time high in 2024, CDC says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.S. life expectancy rose to 79 years in 2024 \u2014 the highest mark in American history.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation\u2019s top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, preliminary statistics suggest a continued improvement in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much good news all the way around,\u201d said Robert Anderson, of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the 2024 data on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population\u2019s health, is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, just shy of 79 years. <\/p>\n<p>It was relatively flat for several years before plunging as the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 1.2 million Americans. In 2021, life expectancy fell to just under 76.5 years. It has been rebounding since.<\/p>\n<p>The data reflect not only a complete turnaround from the pandemic but also a lasting improvement in the drug overdose epidemic, said Andrew Stokes, a researcher at Boston University.<\/p>\n<p>The bad news is that the U.S. still ranks below <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/population.un.org\/wpp\/downloads?folder=Standard%20Projections&amp;group=Mortality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dozens<\/a> of other countries, Stokes noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, about 3.07 million U.S. residents died, about 18,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Heart disease remained the nation\u2019s leading cause of death, but the death rate due to it dropped by about 3% for the second year in a row. A combination of factors are likely at play, including advances in medical treatments and weight management, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, who treats and studies heart disease at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n<p>Deaths from unintentional injuries \u2014 a category that includes drug overdoses \u2014 fell the most, dropping more than 14% in 2024. COVID-19, which only a few years ago was the nation\u2019s No. 3 killer, in 2024 dropped out of the top 10. <\/p>\n<p>COVID-19\u2019s fall meant suicide moved into the top 10, even though suicides in 2024 declined. Homicides fell that year, too, this week\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n<p>Deaths statistics for 2025 are not finalized, but preliminary data suggest around 3.05 million deaths have been recorded. That number may grow as more death certificates are rounded up and analyzed, but Anderson said he expects last year will end up at least a slight improvement over 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Stobbe writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.S. life expectancy rose to 79 years in 2024 \u2014 the highest mark in American history. It\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":561397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[245184,245186,4140,12920,245180,40171,210,245183,1691,40741,245182,1245,245185,1439,245181,67,132,68,1628],"class_list":["post-561396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-andrew-stokes","tag-average-number","tag-covid-19","tag-datum","tag-death-rate","tag-drug-overdose","tag-health","tag-health-statistics","tag-heart-disease","tag-improvement","tag-medical-advance","tag-nation","tag-top-killer","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-life-expectancy","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116002267728054051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}