NEW YORK: Drug overdose deaths and COVID-19 have pushed life expectancy in the United States to its lowest point since 1996, according to a new report released Thursday through the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There were 3,464,231 deaths overall in the U. S. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention reported in 2021, 80,502 more than the total reported in 2020, to the CDC.
Life expectancy at birth for the U. S. populationThe U. S. population fell from years in 2020 to 76. 4 years in 2021, a decline for the time being a year in a row, according to the CDC.
Heart disease remained the leading cause of death in the U. S. This was the case in the U. S. last year, followed by cancer and COVID-19.
In 2021, nearly 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, a nearly 16 percent increase since 2020, according to the CDC. Drug overdose deaths have quintupled in the last two decades in the country.