Life expectancy sees biggest postwar drop

Life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, said public health officials on Wednesday. The decrease for both black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse — three years. The drop spelled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which health officials said is responsible for close to 74 percent of the overall life expectancy decline. More than 3.3 million people died in the US last year, far more than any other year, with COVID-19 accounting for about 11 percent of those deaths. For decades, US life expectancy was on the upswing. But that trend stalled in 2015, before hitting 78 years, 10 months in 2019.