US Life Expectancy On Track To Reach Record High
9 132The US age-adjusted death rate fell to a record low in 2025, likely pushing life expectancy to a record high as overdose deaths declined and mortality improved across all age groups. CNN reports: There were about 689 deaths for every 100,000 people in the US in 2025, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- the lowest rate recorded in more than a century of tracking. The age-adjusted rate has fallen 22% since 2021, landing about 4% lower than it was just before the pandemic in 2019. [...] The top causes of death in the US in 2025 followed longstanding patterns: Heart disease led with nearly 695,000 deaths, followed by cancer with nearly 623,000 deaths.
Unintentional injuries, which includes drug overdoses, were the third leading cause of death. Overdose deaths are still high -- about 70,000 people died from an overdose in 2025, preliminary CDC data shows -- but experts say that sharp declines probably played a large role in bringing the age-adjusted death rate down in the US.
9 comments
Yes but we're all going to die (Score: 5, Funny)
by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @06:35AM (#66221104)
I have it under good authority doing months of Facebook related research while pooping that everyone who had the COVID-19 vaccine is going to die in 2026. The BBC reported on it so it must be true. At least a Facebook post reposted an X post that claimed the BBC had an article which reported on it, so surely that must be true.
I'm not an epidemiologist but (Score: 5, Interesting)
by XMKT ( 2664229 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @08:08AM (#66221186)
My guess would be that the recent pandemic that devasted so many populations across the globe may have something to do with the mathematics behind this.
If lots of people died a few years earlier than they would otherwise have done, then that would pull life expectancy downwards temporarily.
Following that, the survivors will on average appear to live longer, pushing apparent life expectancy above normal.
Will it continue? (Score: 5, Insightful)
by ebcdic ( 39948 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @08:09AM (#66221188)
One might expect a decrease in the death rate (even age-adjusted) after a pandemic, as a disproportionate number of unhealthy people will have already died. So it will be interesting to see if this continues.
Re:Decreased obesity (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Sique ( 173459 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @07:11AM (#66221134)
Lets put it like this: You have to compare 80 years of biography to find out. Right now, people dying did not experience the Great Depression and the Second World War, which gives them a large boost compared to people living 10 years early. We might see the effect of Microplastic in 50 years time.
Re:Decreased obesity (Score: 5, Interesting)
by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @07:44AM (#66221164)
How can this be? Climate is killing everyone, air pollution is worse, microplastics is worser, everyone is so poor that they can't eat, everything that trump or musk does is fatal, every single thing is linked to icreased death. Erm /sarc
Because we've got all the low hanging fruit like preventable diseases in childhood, dangerous products, toxic pesticides, et al. But don't worry, Trump and the Anti-Vaxxers are working tirelessly to bring back such wonderful easily preventable diseases as Polio, Measles, Rubella and if they can manage it, Smallpox.
It should be noted this is a record for the US... which is still lower than almost all other developed nations.
For those who aren't idiots, I'm sure I don't need to explain that the biggest factor is the reduction in infant, child and young adult mortality as people under 25 dying in larger numbers skew the statistics downwards.
Re:Decreased obesity (Score: 5, Informative)
by gtall ( 79522 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @07:56AM (#66221170)
Calm down grasshopper. What's being "said" (keep an eye on statistics instead of inflating percentages into everybody) is that taking away many peoples' healthcare (in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy) does not make many people healthier, it makes them more unhealthy and poorer. Everything that el Bunko and Elmo do *sometimes* (more often than should be) make people dead or sick. Cutting minuscule foreign aid kills scores in Africa. Pissing it off on Israel killed scores of Palestinians.
la Presidenta is cutting rules and regs on pollutants. I presume in your book that pollutants do not kill people or make them sick. Then you'll be wanting to cozy up to that coal fired power plant that is now allowed to spew more mercury into the environment. You do recall mercury from HS chemistry, yes? Okay, no. So look it up.
One can go through the list of el Bunko's EOs. They have two defining features: they are bad for Americans' health and they benefit he and his crime family. Elmo is not far behind but his reach is smaller.....now. That little fucking Nazi has every intention of tell everyone else how live and his Silicon Valley fellow travelers (Thiel, Ellison, Altman, etc.) are right behind him. Bezos is bringing up the rear. You are mere cannon fodder to their schemes.
If you want to see how the proles are doing, pay attention to credit card debt and how many jobs they must work to make ends meet. Jesus, and stop whinging about how mistreated is the Epstein class.
Re:Decreased obesity (Score: 5, Informative)
by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @08:07AM (#66221184)
How can this be? Climate is killing everyone, air pollution is worse, microplastics is worser, everyone is so poor that they can't eat, everything that trump or musk does is fatal, every single thing is linked to icreased death. Erm /sarc
In the event that you don't know/understand the answer already, I'll try to illustrate it.
Imagine life-expectancy is say... 80 years and there are exactly 3 causes of death named A, B, and C with evenly-distributed probability.
Imagine we eliminate CoD A entirely. That changes odds of dying of CoD B or C from 33% to 50%.
Imagine also that by eliminating CoD A it adds an average of 5 years of life before death, putting L-E at 85 years.
Imagine we start injecting people with a lightly toxic substance (metaphor for microplastics etc), which damages the body but doesn't kill. Say that knocks 3 years off the average lifespan, dropping L-E to 82 years.
All of the things you're reading about can be true at the same time because words mean things. Bad things are bad, and the take-home is that the bad things are what is keeping things from being better than they are. As another illustration, getting a raise is a good thing, someone making a shitty decision that drives up inflation is a bad thing, and it's possible for you to have marginally more buying power after the two but the shitty decision still sucks.
Re:How about stating the obvious.... (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Firethorn ( 177587 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @03:33PM (#66221668)
I attribute it down to mostly the elimination of leaded gasoline. 18-20 years after use drops, crime drops as well.
Re:How close (Score: 5, Informative)
by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Friday July 03, 2026 @08:04PM (#66221814)
Life expectancy and death rate are not the same thing. The US has a younger population than, e.g. Spain, so it has a lower death rate (this year at least) despite also have a lower life expectancy.