One in 25 American children will miss their 40th birthday, according to a shocking analysis that reveals the nation’s miserable life expectancy.
An analysis found that guns, drugs and other preventable deaths are killing American youth and reducing life expectancy. Among Americans now five years old, one in 25 will not live to see their 40th birthday.
The average American lives to 77.2 years, less than the 80.9 years in the United Kingdom, 82.8 in France and 82.3 in Spain.
Figures show that the average person in America will live as many years in good health as citizens in the unhealthiest city in England.
The average American has the same healthy life expectancy as the average resident of Blackpool, considered the worst city in England
Unlike its peers, the US suffered an extremely sharp drop in life expectancy in 2020 and failed to recover in 2021. Even if Covid deaths are eliminated, America still suffered a significant drop in life expectancy that other countries did not
According to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), part of the University of Washington, American citizens only live an average of 65 years in good health.
In contrast to typical life expectancy, the average healthy life expectancy of a person is how long they live before becoming seriously disabled by a chronic disease.
Many point to the country’s growing opioid epidemic and gun violence contributing to both problems.
An analysis by the Financial Times points to the huge difference in life expectancy between America and its closest competitors.
It calculated the average healthy life expectancy for each county in England, each state in the US and America as a whole using data from the IHME.
For example, a person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 65 may live to be 90. Although they would be counted as 90 years old, this statistic would say that they only live up to 65 healthy years.
READ MORE: Fentanyl’s deadly grip on America
Cheap synthetic opioids flooding the US street drug supply are reducing life expectancy.
The analysis found that the average American lives to just 65 healthy years, far short of the nation’s average life expectancy of 77.
This number is well below all but one of the counties in England. Blackpool, a notoriously impoverished town on the north-east coast of the island, also has an average healthy life expectancy of 65 years.
In 1992, the town became the poster child for child poverty in England when photographs of an impoverished family from the seaside town made headlines in the English press.
Despite being considered a failing city by both the private and public sectors in the UK, it is surprisingly the richest country in the world in terms of the overall health of its population.
The situation is particularly bad in West Virginia, the least healthy US state.
West Virginians live an average of just 60 healthy years, the IHME finds – five years less than Blackpool.
Analysis of IHME data also revealed a staggering number of deaths among young people in the US.
It found that two percent, or one in 50 children five years old today, will not make it to 30. Double that number, four percent, will not reach 40.
In an analysis of 10 peer countries, he found their rates were just over 1 percent.
However, these burdens are mainly borne by young people. Americans 75 and older tend to live as long as their peers.
That means the life expectancy of the leading killers of young Americans, including guns, drugs and other preventable deaths, is falling.
In a report last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that gun-related homicides in the United States increased by 35 percent during the pandemic.
Overall, gun-related injuries increased by 40 percent, the same CDC report found.
While anyone can be affected by gun violence, younger people are more likely to be affected. About 110 Americans are killed by gun violence every day.
Guns are the number one killer of children in the US, surpassing car accidents in 2019.
Life expectancy in the US dropped significantly between 2019 and 2020 by 1.8 years to an average of 77 years. But even before the Covid pandemic, Americans lived about three years less than many of their peers
The number of deaths due to fentanyl in the US increased sharply in the 2010s. At the start of the decade, 2,666 Americans died of a fentanyl overdose. That number rose to 19,413 in 2016. Covid worsened the situation, with a record 72,484 deaths in 2021
Meanwhile, the pandemic has also unleashed a wave of fatal drug overdoses. The CDC has recorded more than 100,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2021, a new record.
This was fueled by the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which accounted for 72,484 of them.
Overall, the number of preventable deaths in America exceeds that of the rest. In a January study of 13 developed countries, the Commonwealth Fund found that the US suffers twice as many preventable deaths as its peers.
According to the Washington DC-based nonprofit’s analysis, 336 out of every 100,000 Americans died needlessly in 2020.
These deaths include gun deaths, drug deaths, murders, car accidents and deaths that could have been prevented with preventive medical care.
This is much higher than the figures for Switzerland (130) and Sweden (150). In the UK it was just 194.
In a separate study, the CDC found that deaths among American teenagers doubled over a two-year period — mostly from fentanyl.
This caused life expectancy in the US to drop more than other countries during the pandemic.
As the virus ravaged people worldwide, America suffered a greater drop in life expectancy than many of its peers in 2020, from 78.8 years to 77 years.
Unlike the UK, Australia and other industry peers, there was no recovery in 2021. In America, longevity continued to decline, falling to 76.4.
And this despite the fact that America spends a lot of money on its health care compared to its competitors.
The Commonwealth Fund report found that the US spends 17.8 percent of annual GDP on health care, a figure that has grown rapidly over the past decade.
It also exceeds many other countries, with Germany having the second highest of the 13 industrialized countries included in the study at 12.8 percent.
The UK spends around 12 percent of its GDP on healthcare costs.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
