2019 to 2020 Saw Decrease in Life Expectancy in All States, D.C.

TUESDAY, Aug. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) — From 2019 to 2020, there was a decrease in life expectancy for all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.), according to the Aug. 23 National Vital Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Elizabeth Arias, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues used data to prepare the 2020 state-specific life tables by sex, which included the final mortality statistics, based on age-specific death rates in 2020.

The authors found that in 2020, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth (80.7 years) and Mississippi had the lowest (71.9 years) among the 50 states and D.C. Life expectancy decreased for all 50 states and D.C. from 2019 to 2020, from 0.2 to 3.0 years for Hawaii and New York, respectively. Life expectancy at age 65 years varied from 16.1 to 21.0 years in Mississippi and Hawaii, respectively, in 2020. In all states and D.C., life expectancy at birth was higher for females. The difference in life expectancy between females and males varied from 3.9 to 7.0 years in Utah and D.C., respectively.

“Overall, life expectancy in the United States declined by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in unintentional injuries (mainly drug overdose deaths),” the authors write.

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