Life Expectancy in U.S. Falling Further and Further Behind Peer Countries

Life expectancy in the U.S. declined by 1.87 years between 2018 and 2020, according to an Urban Institute study. This decline was 8.5 times greater than the 0.22 average decline of 16 peer (high-income) countries. Not only did the U.S. suffer a disproportionate number of Covid-19 deaths overall, but the higher death rates among Blacks and Hispanics also contributed to our growing disadvantage in life expectancy.

For more than a decade, life expectancy at birth in the United States has been falling further behind life expectancy in peer countries. The difference in life expectancy between the U.S. and the 16 peer countries average was 1.88 years in 2010. The difference had grown to 3.05 years by 2018. In 2020, U.S. life expectancy was an even greater 4.69 years behind life expectancy in the peer countries. 

"A longstanding and widening U.S. health disadvantage, high death rates in 2020, and continued inequitable effects on racial and ethnic minority groups are likely the products of longstanding policy choices and systemic racism," the study concludes. 

Source: Urban Institute, Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 on Life Expectancy across Populations in the USA and other High Income Countries: Simulations of Provisional Mortality Data