The COVID-19 pandemic caused life expectancy in the U.S. to decrease by 1.5 years, a new report suggests.
In 2019, life expectancy - or the average number of years a person lives - for the general American population was 78.8 years.
However, using provisional data and estimates, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found this figure fell to 77.3 years in 2020.
This represents the biggest drop seen since World War II.
While the decline in life expectancy is primarily due to the virus - which has killed more than 600,000 Americans so far - the team says there are other factors at play including a rise in drug overdoses and deaths from diabetes.
Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020, a new CDC report finds, representing the biggest drop seen since World War II
Life expectancy among males dropped 1.8 years from 76.3 years to 74.5 years and fell 1.2 years for females from 81.4 years to 80.2 years.
For the report, published on Wednesday, the team used NCHS life tables to calculate life expectancy.
Estimates were simulated for 2020 by looking at provisional death counts because final death counts will not be available until late 2021.
Researchers found that between 2019 and 2020, U.S. life expectancy decreased by 1.5 years from 78.8 years to 77.3 years.
This is a drop not seen since World War II, when life expectancy declined by 2.9 years from 66.2 years in 1942 to 63.3 years in 1943, according to CDC data.
Both men and women saw declines in life expectancy, although the drop was steeper for men.
Hispanic Americans saw a decline of three years and black Americans saw 2.9 years bit white Americans saw a drop of just
