Good news: Americans are living longer. Bad news: We’re still lagging behind much of the developed world. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the life expectancy in the US rose to 79 years old in 2024, the highest it’s ever been. The “Mortality in the United States: 2024” report revealed there was a nearly 4% drop in deaths and that American lifespans improved for both males and females. But when compared side-by-side with many other nations, the stats aren’t nearly as impressive.
Americans Enjoying Higher Life Expectancy
“It’s pretty much good news all the way around,” Robert Anderson of the National Center for Health Statistics at CDC told the AP. Life expectancy is a way to measure a population’s health. It assesses the expected time a person can live from birth to death. Each year in the US, the age increased or remained flat except during COVID-19, where it dropped to 76 ½ years in 2021.
About 3.07 million Americans died in 2024, which is about 18,000 fewer than the year before. Heart disease was the nation’s leading cause, as it has been for years; however, the death rate for this disease dropped by around 3% for the second year in a row. Dr. Sadiya Khan, who treats and studies heart disease at Northwestern University, told the AP that multiple factors, such as advances in medical treatments and weight management, likely contribute.
The second leading cause of death was cancer, followed by unintentional injuries, which include drug overdoses. The top ten leading causes accounted for 70.9% of all deaths in the US, the report explained. Nine of the top ten stayed the same, but COVID, which was the nation’s number three killer a few years ago, dropped out of the list and was replaced by suicide.
By the Numbers
All the leading causes of death dropped in 2024. Unintentional injuries fell by 14.4%, kidney disease dropped by 3.8%, diabetes decreased by 3.1%, chronic lower respiratory disease lowered by 3%, heart disease and suicide both declined by 2.8%, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis fell by 2.%, Alzheimer’s disease dropped by 2.2%, cancer fell 1.7%, and death by stroke decreased 1%.
Drug use and overdose have been a big concern in America for decades. The war on drugs has been going on for what seems like forever, so it’s nice to see that overdose deaths have declined as well. According to the “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2023–2024” report that was also released this month, “The national age-adjusted drug overdose death rate decreased by 26.2% between 2023 and 2024. This decrease was the largest percentage drop across the 2014–2024 period and continues a period of decline that began in 2022. Rates decreased between 2023 and 2024 for all examined subgroups by sex, age, and race and Hispanic origin, as well as by drug type.”
America vs Other Countries
While it’s good news that life expectancy in the US has increased, America is still far behind others. In fact, according to Worldometer’s website, the United States ranks 61 out of a list of 232 locales. Monaco placed number 1 with a life expectancy of 86.73, and coming in last place was Nigeria at 51.5. Some of the others who beat out the US include Hong Kong and Japan, which came in at third and fourth, respectively, with an expected lifespan of 85, Australia at 84, Sweden, France, and Canada at 83, and Germany and the United Kingdom at 81.
