The AP (1/28, Stobbe) reports CDC data indicate that US life expectancy increased “to 79 years in 2024 – the highest mark in American history. It’s the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation’s top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses.” According to the AP, US life expectancy “rose at least a little bit almost every year” for decades, “thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, just shy of 79 years.” However, “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 1/2 years.” While it has started to rebound, experts note “the bad news is that the U.S. still ranks below dozens of other countries.”
CNN (1/29, McPhillips) adds that “there were 722 deaths for every 100,000 people in the US in 2024 – nearly 3.1 million deaths overall – according to final, age-adjusted data published Thursday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The 10 leading causes of death accounted for more than 70% of all deaths in the US in 2024, led by heart disease and cancer that killed more than 600,000 people each.” However, “death rates declined for each of the 10 leading causes of death in 2024, including a particularly sharp drop in unintentional injuries – a category that is largely comprised of drug overdose deaths.” The CDC data also show women can “still expect to live a few years longer than men but that gap is shrinking.”
Related Links:
— “US life expectancy hit an all-time high in 2024, CDC says,”Mike Stobbe , AP, January 28, 2026