Life expectancy drops for second consecutive year

Aug 31, 2022

Karah Rucker Anchor/Reporter

By Karah Rucker (Anchor/Reporter), Ben Burke (Producer/Editor)

Life expectancy has dropped for the second year straight. A report released Wednesday said babies born today will have a shorter life span by almost three years compared to those born before COVID-19.

The last time there was a drop this large was in the 1940’s during World War II. The last time life expectancy dropped two years consecutively was in the early 1960’s. A child born today is projected to live up to 76 years old. The data is dependent on death rates at the time.

The CDC says COVID-19 is the biggest contributing factor to this number. The second greatest factor is accidental deaths such as drug overdoses. Drug overdoses killed a record-breaking 107,000 Americans last year. U.S. life expectancy rose for decades, but progress stalled before the pandemic. It was 78 years, 10 months in 2019. In 2020, it dropped to 77 years. Last year, it fell to about 76 years, 1 month.

AP News contributed to this report

Tags: Pandemic, Society at Large

Karah Rucker: Life expectancy has dropped for the second year straight.
A report released today says babies born today will have a shorter life span by almost three years compared to those born before covid.
The last time there was a drop this large was in the 19-40’s during world war two.
And the last time life expectancy dropped two years consecutively was in the sixties.
Today a child born is projected to live up to 76 years old.
The data is dependent on death rates at the time.
The c-d-c says covid-19 is the biggest factor to this number.
The second greatest factor is accidental deaths.
Such as drug overdoses.
Which also hit a record of its own last year —
With 107 thousand deaths..