US Sees Rise in Life Expectancy After Pandemic Decline

COVID-19 continues to retreat from being a top cause of death in the US, and in turn, life expectancy last year rebounded further toward prepandemic longevity.

New CDC data suggests that people born in 2023 are predicted to live to age 78.4, which is nearly an entire year longer than the prediction for babies born in 2022. Life expectancy hasn’t fully rebounded, though. In 2019 — before the pandemic — life expectancy was 78.8 years.

COVID is now the 10th leading cause of death, down from a fourth-place ranking in 2022. Heart disease remains the top cause of death, followed by cancer. All of the top 10 causes of death in 2023 were also in the top 10 the year prior, although many changed rank. Here they are in order for 2023:

1. Heart disease 
2. Cancer 
3. Unintentional injury 
4. Stroke 
5. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 
6. Alzheimer’s disease 
7. Diabetes 
8. Kidney disease 
9. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
10. COVID-19 

Death rates declined for all of the top 10 causes of death in 2023, compared to 2022, except for cancer.

Women continue to be expected to live longer than men by a little more than 5 years — girls born in 2023 are expected to live to 81.1, and boys are expected to live to 75.8. That’s still a much lower life expectancy than people who were born decades ago.

The researchers also estimated remaining life expectancy for people who were 65 years old in 2023, meaning they were born around 1958. A man who was 65 in 2023 is expected to live another 18.2 years, to age 83.2. A woman who was 65 last year is expected to live to age 85.7.

SOURCES:

CDC: “Mortality in the United States, 2023.”