US Life Expectancy Jumps To a Record 79 Years (reuters.com) 44
An anonymous reader shares a report: U.S. life expectancy rose to a record high of 79 years in 2024, an increase of six months from the previous year, reflecting a sharp decline in deaths from COVID-19 and drug overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
According to a report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy improved for both men and women across races and among Hispanics, surpassing the previous peak set in 2014.
According to a report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy improved for both men and women across races and among Hispanics, surpassing the previous peak set in 2014.
RFK numbers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: RFK numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: RFK numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
You are forgetting how the alleged administration operates. They know that people will see the headlines and since it came out after la Presidenta came into office, they will claim he is the cause and many people will equate the two. Of course his Maggots will but they'll believe anything he says.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you are attempting reason from facts to truth with this administration, you have to realize that path is a road to Hell, and it is not paved with good intentions.
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but because the decrease in deaths from fentanyl shows that their entire "anti-drug" campaigns are horseshit
I think we all knew that the anti-drug thing was BS, because five minutes after he arrested Maduro (for 'drugs'), all he could talk about was oil, oil, oil...
Re:RFK numbers (Score:4, Interesting)
Rather than focusing on leadership why not look at the numbers themselves. What reason do you have to believe that the numbers aren't correct considering they follow the same trend as literally every other western nation (while lagging them all and not showing any evidence of an extraordinary increase)?
Additionally if you are the conspiracy theory type, why would you think the administration would go out of its way to report high numbers during *checks note* Biden's presidency? You're so kneejerk that you turned off your brain 12 words into TFS.
Re:RFK numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm suspect of the numbers due to the administration upheaval, but my gut reaction was, "Duh... COVID killed off A LOT of people, and very likely was a lot of people with preexisting conditions." It'd make sense for life expectancy to increase in the years after such a pandemic.
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I'm suspect of the numbers due to the administration upheaval, but my gut reaction was, "Duh... COVID killed off A LOT of people, and very likely was a lot of people with preexisting conditions." It'd make sense for life expectancy to increase in the years after such a pandemic.
When looking at statistics like this you tend to filter out things like COVID as it was a temporary situation. You still count deaths from pre-existing conditions, accidents, et al. where people die before they're old or non-natural causes as these continue to happen and fewer people dying from car accidents or homicides do affect the stats.
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I don't remember reading anything that would have prompted me to ex
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On top of Covid, I am glad to see the decrease in drug overdoses:
I don't remember reading anything that would have prompted me to expect that.
One word: Naloxone
Granted, I attempted to look up stats on its distribution numbers, but the pages I'm running into have data leading up to 2023 (ex: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov] or https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-p... [cdc.gov] )
That said, you can see a significant increase in distribution from 2019 ramping up through 2023 via those stats. I can only assume distribution continued to increase. Its use can halt an overdose. It's not much of a surprise then that deaths from overdoses fell while distribution of a dru
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And with only triple the per-capita GDP! (Score:4, Funny)
We're back to where we were 12 years ago? Saaay, pretty good. That beats most of South America! Not like, Chile. C'mon, that'd be crazy. But still, pretty good.
Re:And with only triple the per-capita GDP! (Score:5, Funny)
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And Trump's about to start a new one in the Middle East.
Re:And with only triple the per-capita GDP! (Score:4, Interesting)
We're back to where we were 12 years ago? Saaay, pretty good. That beats most of South America! Not like, Chile. C'mon, that'd be crazy. But still, pretty good.
Yep, the life expectancy for the EU is 81.4 years... and the EU includes much of eastern Europe. The people who grew up under the USSR with the food shortages and terrible medical care are still kicking (it was only 35 years ago).
UK is 79.1 for males and 83 for females (so call it 81.5 although technically there are slightly more women), Australia is 81 for males and 85 for females.
Making it to an average of 79 is not an accomplishment.
Not if.. (Score:5, Informative)
I.C.E. is in your area.
Life expectancy needs to be LOWERED!!! (Score:3)
That's why this is horrible news. The birth rates aren't getting any better, so all that means is more retired people living longer and putting a bigger burden on the workforce. Since Social Security is not something like an IRA, where only the money one put in matters: it is a pay-as-you-go ponzi scheme, and the smaller the workforce, the bigger the pressure on Social Security. Also, those who're unemployed can't help either
We need to cut what we spend on elderly healthcare, so that life expectancy go
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We need to cut what we spend on elderly healthcare, so that life expectancy goes down to the point that the current birth rates get to replacement levels
</sarcasm>
FTFY I hope?
Honestly, why do birth rates need to be at replacement levels?
AFAICT, the industrial age reduced the amount of work per person that was needed to reach the same goal (ex. farm $N acres). We continue to reduce that - just think how many people are just working from home! We don't need as many babies if we don't need as many people to do the same amount of work.
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Only half sarcastic. When everybody is retired, but there is nobody working, who exactly is expected to pay for all that? Or do we just have governments minting money and pretend that it has real value?
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Probably. Expect a retirement age of 70+.
Get back on the horse (Score:2)
60 year old Americans still have another 20 years to save up for old age. Get to it
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Except that in this era of age discrimination, few people want to even hire 40 year olds or above, forget 60. All these extra years of life just means more years in retirement
Who do I know that is 79? (Score:1)
Not quite sure, but finger's crossed.
Awesome! (Score:4, Informative)
So now the USA ranks... uh... 7th out of 7 in the G7. Awesome!
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And EU, in 2024, had a life expectancy of 81.7 years.
79, wow (Score:1)
life expectancy of 79, and president double quarter pounder with cheese is...79. fingers crossed.
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Unfortunately, this is life expectancy at birth. Once you're already 79, odds are decent you'll make it a few more years.
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Unfortunately, this is life expectancy at birth. Once you're already 79, odds are decent you'll make it a few more years.
at the rate at which Trump has been decomposing before our very eyes if he really does have another few years the SS will be carrying around in a bucket before his term is over.
probably accurate (Score:3)
Drug overdose deaths are down, because fentanyl killed almost everyone who was susceptible to opiate addiction.
The lower death rates in the US is probably a real effect. However, it'll be temporary. In a few years, the new "don't vaccinate and eat all the beef tallow you can" guidelines will kill enough people to reverse the gains.
Evolution is alive and well in the US human population. This country is NOT kind to the weak and stupid. Ok, I'm done edgelording. Please downmod.
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Restrictions on abortion will also inevitably mean more maternal and infant mortality.
Re:probably accurate (Score:4, Interesting)
Restrictions on abortion will also inevitably mean more maternal and infant mortality.
Maternal mortality increased 56% in Texas since they banned abortions [nbcnews.com]. So there you have it.
Re:probably accurate (Score:4, Informative)
A lot of that has to do with the fact that doctors in Texas face serious criminal charges if they perform abortions, so they are hesitant to do so even when necessary to save the mother's life. There are dozens of terrible stories like this one [aol.com] including women who have had to have emergency surgery to save their lives and then ended up having their fertility compromised [theguardian.com].
That's right. Women who wanted to have kids being rendered sterile because of "pro life" laws. What a fucking disgrace.
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COVID deaths are down, because almost everyone who is really susceptible to COVID is either heavily-vaccinated or already dead.
Just wanna say: 100% agree. And also agree that the lower death rates in the US are likely related to how many (for lack of a better word - weak) people were killed off, especially the elderly. The elderly that remain are sturdy stock :-)
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Sure but trending upwards we have getting shot by activists and getting stabbed by your adult children / co-writers.
And being killed by ICE either on the streets or in various types of captivity.
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COVID killed a lot of people prematurely, so now the ones who survived are living a little longer on average. It culled the herd of the weakest individuals, if you want to be blunt.
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COVID deaths are down, because almost everyone who is really susceptible to COVID is either heavily-vaccinated or already dead.
Oddly enough, COVID is still going and killing people. Mostly in the US. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths [who.int] Of the 1.5K reported COVID deaths in the 28 days until 11 January 2026, 1.3K were in the US.... And this is after several states banned the reporting of COVID deaths. Sure, you're correct that they're down but wrong about everyone being vaccinated or dead.
\o/ (Score:1)
How about ICE?
That which does't kill us (Score:2)