In the year U.S. babies born in 2022 gained about a year in life expectancy compared to babies born a year earlier, federal data showed on Wednesday, an improvement after two consecutive years of declines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the year Life expectancy for newborns in 2022 was 77.5 years, up from 76.4 in 2021, but still lower than the 78.8 years for those born in 2019, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.
CDC researcher Elizabeth Arias, who worked on the report, said: It will take some time before we get back to where we were in 2019,” he said.
The study estimated the life expectancy of children if mortality conditions at birth continued throughout their lives.
“There were positive results in the area … all groups experienced an increase in life expectancy by race and gender,” Arias said.
Life expectancy for American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic infants increased significantly over 2021, by 2.3 years, from 65.6 to 67.9, followed by a 2.2 year increase for Hispanic infants, from 77.8 to 80.
Life expectancy for black non-Hispanic Americans, who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, increased by 1.6 years from 71.2 to 72.8, primarily due to fewer deaths from Covid-19 and lower deaths from heart disease, homicide, diabetes and cancer.
It increased by 1 year to 84.5 years for Asian non-Hispanic infants, and 0.8 years to 77.5 for white non-Hispanic infants.
Across all groups, earlier declines in deaths due to Covid explained more than 80% of the increase in life expectancy, the report said.
Declines in deaths from heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer, and homicide have all contributed to longer life expectancy, but their effects have varied.
In the American Indian and Alaska Native and Hispanic populations, for example, increases in life expectancy would have been greater if not more than offsetting the increase in deaths from unintentional injuries.
Improvements in life expectancy for non-Hispanic black children were offset by increases in mortality due to maternal conditions, stillbirths, kidney disease, malnutrition, and deaths from injuries caused by legal intervention, police or other law enforcement agents.
As usual, women’s life expectancy is longer. In the year In 2020, the gender gap reached 6 years, a level not seen since 1996. In the year
The 2022 data is provisional, meaning it is subject to change and has many limitations, including differences in the timeliness of issuing death certificates in some jurisdictions.
(Reporting by Maryam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Nancy Lapid and Bill Burkert)
