--- title: "American Life Expectancy Crashes by Almost Two Years" description: "According to data released by the CDC, life expectancy in the US has dropped by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, a massive drop." date: "2021-12-22" modified: "2021-12-22" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/american-life-expectancy-crashes" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "life expectancy" - "mortality rate" --- # American Life Expectancy Crashes by Almost Two Years ![According to data released by the CDC, life expectancy in the US has dropped by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, a massive drop.]() *\Image: ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP\* According to [data]() released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), life expectancy in the US dropped by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020. That's a massive drop, in large part due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the largest decline since at least World War II, [*The Wall Street Journal* reports](). The coronavirus, however, ranked as only the third leading cause of death within that time period. Heart disease and cancer deaths both caused more than 600,000 deaths, while the coronavirus claimed more than 350,000 lives. "I knew there was going to be a decline, but I didn’t expect it to be this large," Elizabeth Arias, a demographer at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, told the *WSJ*. "For some groups, life expectancy declined three years or more." Just as worryingly, the number of deaths from unintentional injuries including drug overdoses and diabetes also ranked high, pushing life expectancy down as well. Diabetes alone caused over 100,000 deaths. The number of drug overdoses in particular hit record highs, according to [separate figures]() released by the CDC last month. Infant mortality, on the other hand, fell to a record low of 541 deaths per 100,000 live births over the same period. The largest category of preventable deaths, though, is almost certainly COVID. To date, the US has recorded almost 810,000 deaths due to the virus. Even almost two years into the pandemic, with vaccines widely available, [over 1,000 Americans]() are dying from the virus every day — with the [large majority]() being unvaccinated. ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()