Life expectancy in the United States was 78.8 years in 2015, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2014, according to a report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The decrease is primarily due to an increase in mortality from heart disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and suicide.
For men, life expectancy declined from 76.5 years in 2014 to 76.3 years in 2015. For women, life expectancy decreased from 81.3 years in 2014 to 81.2 years in 2015.
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The age-adjusted death rate for the total US population increased 1.2%—from 724.6 deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2014 to 733.1 deaths in 2015. The age-adjusted death rates increased for non-Hispanic black males (0.9%), non-Hispanic white males (1.0%), and non-Hispanic white females (1.6%). No significant changes in rates were observed for non-Hispanic black females, Hispanic males, and Hispanic females.
The 10 leading causes of death in 2015 remained the same from 2014—heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide. These 10 leading causes accounted for 74.2% of all deaths in the United States in 2015. The mortality rate increased 0.9% for heart disease, 2.7% for chronic lower respiratory diseases, 6.7% for unintentional injuries, 3.0% for stroke, 15.7% for Alzheimer’s disease, 1.9% for diabetes, 1.5% for kidney disease, and 2.3% for suicide. The rate decreased by 1.7% for cancer, and the rate for influenza and pneumonia did not change significantly.
The infant mortality rate slightly increased from 582.1 infant deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014 to 589.5 in 2015. A total of 23,455 deaths occurred in children younger than 1 year of age, an increase of 240 deaths compared with 2014. The leading causes of infant death were the same in 2015 as in 2014, with the top 3 being congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome. The only significant change among the 10 leading causes of infant death was an 11.3% increase for unintentional injuries.
Reference
- National Center for Health Statistics. Mortality in the United States, 2015. December 2016. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db267.pdf
