U.S. Life Expectancy Hits New High of Nearly 78 Years

The Center for Disease Control, Sep 14, 2007

A child born in the United States in 2005 can expect to live nearly
78 years (77.9) ? a new high ? according to a report released today by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2005.”

The report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics is based
on approximately 99 percent of death records reported in all 50 states
and the District of Columbia for 2005 and documents the latest trends
in the leading causes of death and infant mortality.

The increase in life expectancy represents a continuation of a
long-running trend. Over the past decade, life expectancy has increased
from 75.8 years in 1995, and from 69.6 years in 1955.

“This report highlights the continued reduction in deaths from the
three leading killers in the United States, heart disease, cancer and
stroke, which is most likely due to better prevention efforts and
medical advances in the treatments of these diseases,” said
Hsiang-Ching Kung, a survey statistician with CDC's National Center for
Health Statistics and one of the report's authors. “If death rates from
certain leading causes of death continue to decline, we should continue
to see improvements in life expectancy.”

Highlights of the report include:

• Life expectancy for whites was 78.3 in 2005, unchanged from
  the record high of 2004. Life expectancy for blacks increased slightly
  from 73.1 years in 2004 to 73.2 years in 2005.
• The age-adjusted U. S. death rate fell to below 800 deaths per 100,000 population in 2005 ? an all-time low.
• The
  death rate from the three leading killers in the United States ? heart
  disease, cancer and stroke ? declined in 2005 compared to the previous
  year. The age-adjusted death rate from heart disease fell from 217
  deaths per 100,000 in 2004 to 210.3 in 2005, while the age-adjusted
  death rate from cancer dropped from 185.8 per 100,000 in 2004 to 183.8
  in 2005. The age-adjusted death rate from stroke declined from 50 per
  100,000 in 2004 to 46.6 in 2005.
• The age-adjusted death
  rates for the seventh leading cause of death, Alzheimer's disease, and
  the 14th leading cause of death, Parkinson's disease, both increased
  approximately 5 percent between 2004 and 2005.

Preliminary figures also indicate an increase in the U.S. infant
mortality rate from 6.79 per 1,000 live births in 2004 to 6.89 in 2005.
However, this increase is not considered statistically significant.
Congenital malformations, or birth defects, were the leading cause of
infant mortality in 2005, followed by disorders related to preterm
birth and low birthweight. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was the
third leading cause of infant death in the United States.