US life expectancy falls to lowest level since 1996 amid fentanyl epidemic and Covid hangover

According to official figures, life expectancy in the US has fallen to the lowest level since 1996.

A report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the average American born in 2021 will live to be just 76.4 years old.

This is the second year in a row that life expectancy has fallen, having fallen from 78.8 years in 2019 and 77.0 years in 2020. It is now at its lowest level since 1996 when it was 76.1 years.

Covid was the third leading cause of death for the second consecutive year in 2021, and a fivefold increase in drug overdose deaths over the past decade – fueled by a sharp increase in fentanyl contamination – also contributed to the decline.

In 2021, a total of 3,464,231 deaths were recorded in the United States. The top 10 causes of death accounted for 74.5 percent of all US deaths by 2021. Accidental injuries include drug overdose

Life expectancy in the US peaked at 78.9 years in 2014. Before the pandemic, life expectancy in 2019 was close to that level again.

In 2020, the Covid crisis caused the biggest annual drop in life expectancy since the Second World War.

Heart disease remained the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by cancer.

Covid has caused more than 1 million deaths in the US since the virus first emerged in early 2020.

But while Covid has been reduced to a mild illness for most, the number of non-Covid deaths has increased this year.

This is attributed to delayed hospital supplies, lockdowns and other restrictions that have weighed on the nation’s health.

The number of teenagers with fentanyl overdose (gray line) has tripled since the start of the Covid pandemic (dotted line between 2019 and 2020). Scientists say it may be related to the synthetic opioid being mixed with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin

The official death toll from Covid-19 is nearly 1.1 million, according to the CDC, but that excludes deaths from fatal drug overdoses during the lockdown

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Meanwhile, illegal versions of fentanyl have replaced heroin in many markets and increased overdose deaths.

The CDC report included drug overdoses in accidental injuries — which were the fourth leading cause of death over the past two years.

Last year, nearly 107,000 people died of drug overdoses, increasing the age-adjusted overdose death rate by 50 percent over the past two years.

The number of drug overdose deaths among American teenagers doubled between 2019 and 2021, even as the use of illegal substances declined.

Deaths from fentanyl — an extremely powerful synthetic opioid used as an adulterant in many street drugs — rose 182 percent.

Life expectancy fell less for blacks than whites in 2021, partly due to higher numbers of Covid-19 among minorities early in the pandemic.

The life expectancy of black people in the US was 70.8 years last year, compared to 76.4 years for white people.