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Did
You Know?
Archived Years
2004
March
Life Expectancy Continues
to Grow
A new report prepared by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center
for Health Statistics (NCHS), "Deaths:
Preliminary Data for 2002," finds that
in 2002,Life expectancy in the United States
was the highest ever in 2002, continuing the
trend shown in recent years. A new report prepared
by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics,
Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2002, finds that
in 2002, life expectancy at birth in the United
States reached a new high of 77.4 years, up
from 77.2 in 2001.
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Life expectancy increased
for both men (to 74.7 from 74.4) and women
(to 79.9 from 79.8), and for African Americans
and whites (up 0.1-0.3 years in each category).
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Life expectancy at age 65
increased for men to 16.6 (total of 81.6
years) from 16.4 (81.4) and for women to
19.5 (84.5 years) from 19.4 (84.4 years).
Similar increases were shown for life expectancy
at age 60. Black men to 14.6 (total of 79.6
years) from 14.4 (79.4) and for Black women
to 18.0 (83.0 years) from 17.9 (82.9 years).
Similar increases were shown for life expectancy
at age 60.
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Overall, death rates for
the total U.S. population dropped in 2002.
The national age-adjusted death rate decreased
slightly from 855 deaths per 100,000 population
in 2001 to 847 deaths per 100,000 in 2002.
There were declines in mortality among most
racial, ethnic, and gender groups except
for American Indians (both males and females)
and non-Hispanic white females, whose death
rates remained unchanged from 2001. The largest
decrease was among Hispanic males (4.6%)
and Hispanic females (4.9%)
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Among the nation’s
leading causes of death, there were declines
in mortality from heart disease (3 percent),
stroke (nearly 3 percent), accidents/unintentional
injuries (nearly 2 percent) and cancer (1
percent). The biggest decline in mortality
among the leading cause of deaths was for
homicides - down 17 percent. That number
had increased sharply in 2001 due to the
September 11 terrorist attacks. Excluding
the September 11 deaths, the decrease from
2001 to 2002 would have been 3 percent, which
still reflects a continuing downward trend
in homicides that began in 1991.
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There has also been a continued
decline in the preliminary age-adjusted death
rate from HIV/AIDS, which dropped 2 percent
between 2001 and 2002. HIV mortality has
decreased approximately 70 percent since
1995, but remains the 5th leading cause of
death for people ages 25-44.
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Mortality rates increased
for some leading causes of death,
including Alzheimer’s (up 5.8
percent), influenza and pneumonia
(up 3.2 percent), high blood pressure
(up 2.9 percent), and septicemia
or blood poisoning (up 2.6 percent).
Also, infant mortality increased
from a rate of 6.8 infant deaths
per 1,000 live births in 2001 to
a rate of 7.0 per 1,000 births in
2002, the first year since 1958 that
the rate has not declined or remained
unchanged. This was mostly due to
deaths resulting from congenital
malformations, disorders related
to short gestation and low birth
weight, and newborns affected by
maternal complications of pregnancy.
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Dept. of Health & Human Services
