Life expectancy in the United States has started to rise again as the threat of Covid-19 has subsided, rising by more than a year between 2021 and 2022, according to facts released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The increase represents a slow and partial recovery for the country, which had more than 1.1 million Covid-19 deaths and lost 2.4 years of life expectancy between 2019 and 2021.
And a host of other conditions continued to pose serious risks to American health. Deaths from flu, pneumonia, perinatal conditions, kidney disease, nutritional deficiencies and birth defects all rose in 2022, the agency reported, partially offsetting the decline in Covid-19 deaths.
In 2022, life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years, compared to 76.4 years in 2021. A decline in deaths from Covid-19 is responsible for more than 80 percent of that increase. In 2019, before the pandemic, life expectancy at birth was 78.8. Declines in deaths from heart disease, unintentional injuries (a category that includes traffic fatalities and drug overdoses), cancer and homicides also contributed to increases in life expectancy, the CDC reported.
Some demographic differences have also narrowed in 2022, the data show.
The gains were especially pronounced among Native Americans and Alaska Natives, who were especially hard hit by Covid-19, losing 6.2 years of life expectancy between 2019 and 2021. In 2022, they regained 2.3 years of those years, although their life expectancy was 67.9 years. remains lower than that of other demographic groups.
Life expectancy increased by 2.2 years for the Hispanic population and by 1.6 years for black Americans. The increases were more modest for Asian and white Americans, who gained 1.0 and 0.8 years of life expectancy, respectively, in 2022.
During the pandemic, the long-standing gap in life expectancy between the sexes widened, resulting in higher mortality rates for men than women. In 2021, women could be expected to live six years longer than men, but that gap has narrowed slightly, to 5.4 years in 2022.