As if you don’t have enough to worry about, life expectancy has gone down.
The good news is people might not need to save quite as much money for retirement as before. The bad news is the reason for that statement. The life expectancy for the US is in a decline. In fact, American life expectancy has gone down for the last three years in a row.
This undesired streak marks the first time in 100 years that the lifespan in the U.S. has declined for three or more consecutive years. American life expectancy declined for four years in a row from 1915 to 1918. To appreciate those circumstances and put our current decline into perspective, both the worldwide epidemic of Spanish Flu and World War I occurred during those four years.
The Numbers
Life expectancy is a curious beast. You will have one life expectancy at birth and a significantly different one if you live to age 25. Surviving to age 25 increases your life expectancy, and making it to middle age extends the projections even further.
For example, a baby born in 2016 had a life expectancy of 76 years for a male and 81 for a female. Once that baby turns 25, the estimates are 89.5 years for a female and just under 87 years for a male. People who were middle-aged in 2016 had a good chance of living beyond these years. The projections in 2016 saw a decrease of six months as compared to 2015. The lowered lifespan projections for our country are continuing.
Factors Driving the Decline in Life Expectancy
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggests that, while many elements go into the calculation of lifespan, these three issues might be responsible for some of the downward slide of the American life expectancy:
- Increased suicide rates. Suicide in the United States has skyrocketed during the last 20 years. The suicide rate is 33 percent higher now than it was in 1999. You might attribute the increase to the Great Recession, but the most dramatic surge in numbers was in 2017, with a 3.7 percent jump. On a side note, worldwide suicide rates went down by almost 30 percent during the same time.
- Drug overdoses. The epidemic of drug overdoses is now so massive that it is affecting national life expectancy. Within the last ten years, fatal drug overdoses increased by 72 percent. These numbers include deaths from street drugs and prescription drugs. More than 70,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2017. Over 47,000 of those deaths involved opioids, like heroin and prescription painkillers. Doctors today prescribe three times as many opioids as they did in 1999.
- Liver disease. Deaths from cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases have gone through the roof during the last decade. Genetics and the heavy consumption of alcohol get much of the blame for this phenomenon.
Many other factors contribute to lifespan. Lifestyle choices, like nutrition, sleep habits, and physical activity, can help a person live a longer, healthier life. We spend more on healthcare per person than any other country. While life expectancy in our country has decreased, the projected lifespan is still increasing in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, albeit at a much slower rate than before.
References:
CNBC. “US Life Expectancy has been declining. Here’s why.” (accessed November 14, 2019) https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/us-life-expectancy-has-been-declining-heres-why.html
Financial Advisor. “U.S. Life Expectancy Now 6 Months Shorter.” (accessed November 14, 2019) https://www.fa-mag.com/news/u-s–life-expectancy-now-6-months-shorter-29781.html
