American Life Expectancy Is Down While Rates of Suicide and Drug Overdose Increase

With rising suicide rates and an increase in drug overdoses, American life expectancy is down again.

For decades, the life expectancy rate would go up each year. But it fell for the first time in 2015, stayed stable in 2016 and went down again in 2017, when the Centers for Disease Control said that the average American could expect to live for 78.7 years. This year, based on data from 2017, that number is down to 78.6.

CDC director Dr. Robert R. Redfield said in a statement that they see the rising suicide rate and increase in opioid use as the main causes for shortened life expectancy.

“The latest CDC data show that the U.S. life expectancy has declined over the past few years. Tragically, this troubling trend is largely driven by deaths from drug overdose and suicide,” he said.

The CDC said in June that suicide rates around the country are soaring. Since 1999, deaths by suicide have increased by around 30 percent, with nearly 45,000 people committing suicide in 2016 alone. Between 2016 and 2017, the rate of suicide went up by 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, 70,237 people died of drug overdoses in 2017, the most ever in a single year. But the rate of drug overdose went up by 9.6 percent versus an increase of 21 percent between 2015 and 2016.

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In more positive news, the rates of death by heart disease and cancer — which remain the two leading causes of death in the U.S. — both went down, by .5 and 3.3 percent, respectively.

But this new data is concerning, Redfield said.

“Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the nation’s overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable,” he said. “CDC is committed to putting science into action to protect U.S. health, but we must all work together to reverse this trend and help ensure that all Americans live longer and healthier lives.”

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