US life expectancy up in 2022, but still not at pre-pandemic levels

Life expectancy for adults in the U.S. increased to 77.5 years in 2022 — up 1.1 years from 2021 — but the average is still not back to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Between 2019 and 2021, average life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by 2.4 years. COVID-19 was the largest contributing factor to the overall decline. But now that trend is reversing, with fewer deaths caused by COVID-19 in the years since. 

In addition to falling mortality rates due to COVID-19, deaths from heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer and homicide have also declined, according to the Nov. 29 report. 

"The increase in life expectancy would have been even greater if not for the offsetting effects of increases in mortality due to influenza and pneumonia (25.5%), perinatal conditions (21.5%), kidney disease (13.0%), nutritional deficiencies (12.6%) and congenital malformations (5.9%)," the report states.

Broken down by demographics, American Indians and Alaska Natives saw the biggest increase in life expectancy in 2022, regaining 2.3 years from what had been a loss of 6.2 years between 2019 and 2021. The Hispanic and Black populations saw the next largest gains in life expectancy at 2.2 years and 1.6 years, respectively. 

The white population, however, only regained 0.8 years of life expectancy.

 

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