Life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level in 25 years. That’s according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control which show the leading causes for this change are COVID-19 and record-setting drug overdoses.
In 2021, nearly 107,000 people died of an overdose–about five times worse than 20 years ago. Government data points to a steep rise in the use of opioids overall as well as synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Deaths involving these drugs increased by 22% over the prior year.
COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. for 2021, where more than 416,000 Americans had the disease as the underlying cause on their death certificates. It’s on track to be a leading cause of death in 2022.
The higher death rates bring Americans to a new average life expectancy of 76.1 years. That is down about 2.5 years from 2019. According to the World Health Organization, this drop means that 39 countries now have a greater life expectancy than the United States.
