Life expectancy at birth decreased by almost one year from 2020 to 2021, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The figures revealed that this level of decline has not been seen since 1996.
Based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans have gone from having a life expectancy of 77.0 to 76.1 years. The loss of 0.9 years in 2021-along with a drop of 1.8 years in 2020, has been the largest decline since the years 1921-1923.
Life expectancy today is well below that of other nations that can be compared to the US. Furthermore, they reflect the Administration's constant struggle to "meet the demands of the concurrent public health crises."
Life expectancy by group
The report shows that the disparity in life expectancy between men and women increased last year from 5.7 years (in 2020) to 5.9 years (2021):
- For women, it was reduced by 0.8 years, from 79.9 (in 2020) to 79.1 years (2021).
-For men, it was reduced by a full year, from 74.2 (in 2020) to 73.2 years (2021).
Mortality rates have increased most among Native American (Indian/Alaskan) women, who had the biggest drop in life expectancy in 2021 of 1.9 years, they currently have a life expectancy of 65.2 years, which is equal to the average life expectancy of the general U.S. population in 1944. This is followed by white men, whose life expectancy dropped from 78.8 years in 2019 to 76.4 in 2021.
Deaths from covid-19 and drugs
The covid-19 pandemic has had "a ripple effect by exacerbating the already very serious problem we have with overdose deaths," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And she said the pandemic prompted social changes that made "people more vulnerable to using drugs as a form of escape."
Overall, there were 3,464,231 deaths recorded last year. This represents 80,502 more deaths than in 2020. More than 106,000 people died from a drug overdoses in 2021, an increase of nearly 16% over the one-year period ending March 2022. On the other hand, covid-19 deaths contributed to nearly 74% of the decline in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020 and 50% of the decline from 2020 to 2021.
Other causes of death that contributed to the decrease in life expectancy from 2020 to 2021 include heart disease (4.1 % of the decrease), liver disease (3.0 %), and suicide (2.1 %).
A wake-up call for the government
The two crises, the covid-19 pandemic and the increase in drug addiction and overdoses, are "a wake-up call" for the Administration added Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota: "Clearly, this is what's affecting the health of our communities, unlike almost anything we've seen before.
The Biden Administration has not only had trouble controlling or managing the coronavirus pandemic, but "has had trouble responding as the deadly trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids has evolved, and expanding access to treatment for substance use disorder."
