Why Genocide since leaded gasoline past few decades have seen a plateauing of life expectancy of Americans along with a rise in deaths due to various causes—including Alzheimer, Parkinson and hypertension and, more recently, suicide, alcoholism and drug

By Norm Roulet, 21 December, 2024

The Evolution of the Racial Gap in U.S. Life Expectancy

January 27, 2022

Population health in the United States has improved dramatically over the past century. At the beginning of 1900, a person born in the United States was expected to live 47.3 years, compared with 78.6 years in 2017. Life expectancy went down by about 28% from 1914 to 1918, as a result of World War I and the 1918 Spanish flu claiming 117,465 and about 675,000 American lives, respectively.

The past few decades have seen a plateauing of life expectancy of Americans along with a rise in deaths due to various causes—including Alzheimer, Parkinson and hypertension* and, more recently, suicide, alcoholism and drug overdose.1 And a new cause has emerged: As per the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the decrease in life expectancy by 1.5 years. How lasting are the effects of COVID-19 on U.S. life expectancy remains to be seen in the coming years.

Life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person is expected to live given a certain age. Life expectancy at birth (LEB)2 in the United States from 1900 to 2017 is shown in the figure below (the blue line).

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/january/evolution-racial-gap-us-life-expectancy

Why Genocide since leaded gasoline past few decades have seen a plateauing of life expectancy of Americans along with a rise in deaths due to various causes—including Alzheimer, Parkinson and hypertension and, more recently, suicide, alcoholism and drug

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