Report details and key findings

For the report, researchers from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics analyzed provisional death records from 2022, which include 99% of deaths that occurred that year, to estimate Americans' life expectancy at birth.

Overall, the researchers found that U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years in 2022 — an increase from 76.4 years in 2021 and 77 years in 2020. However, this life expectancy is still below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, U.S. life expectancy was 78.8 years. 

According to the researchers, a decline in COVID-19 deaths in 2022 contributed to 84% of the increase in life expectancy. In 2021, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death, and in 2022, it dropped to fourth. Based on preliminary data for 2023, COVID-19 could further drop to the ninth or 10th leading cause of death this year.

However, the researchers also noted that increases in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, perinatal conditions, kidney disease, nutritional deficiencies, and congenital malformations likely limited life expectancy in 2022. In particular, there was a significant increase in malnutrition deaths in 2022, which contributed to 13% of the downward pull for overall U.S. life expectancy.

In 2022, life expectancy among men was 74.8 years, an increase from 73.5 years in 2021. For women, life expectancy in 2022 was 80.2 years compared to 79.3 years in 2021. Although the life expectancy gap between men and women remains, the difference decreased slightly from 5.8 years in 2021 to 5.4 years in 2022.

Changes in life expectancy also varied by race and ethnicity. In 2022, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans/Alaska Natives saw their life expectancies grow by more than two years. Black Americans had a 1.6-year increase in life expectancy, while Asian Americans had a one-year increase and white Americans had a 0.8-year increase.

However, these increases are relative, and certain groups, particularly Hispanic Americans and Native Americans/Alaska Natives, were hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy among Hispanic Americans dropped more than four years, and life expectancy among Native Americans/Alaska Natives dropped more than six years.

"A lot of the large increases in life expectancy are coming from the groups that suffered the most from COVID," said Mark Hayward, a sociology professor from the University of Texas. "They had more to rebound from."

Commentary

Although U.S. life expectancy began to rebound in 2022, health experts say there is still more work to be done to get it back to pre-pandemic levels.

"We're halfway back to what we lost," said Eileen Crimmins, an expert on gerontology and demography at the University of Southern California. "But we certainly have a very long ways to go before we get to where life expectancy should be."

The United States also continues to lag behind other comparable countries when it comes to life expectancy. While U.S. life expectancy continued to decrease in 2021, many other countries reported their life expectancies increasing again.

"To see an increase now in 2022 is great — we finally stopped the horrific worsening of mortality conditions in the United States," said Ryan Masters, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "But it's coming a year later than what other comparable countries experienced and it's only marginally scratching the surface of improving mortality conditions for Americans."

"The U.S. had already been doing quite poorly compared to other countries," said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The gap between the U.S. and other countries is now enormous."

Although there have been improvements in life expectancy in the United States, Masters said more needs to be done to improve public health in the country, which was already falling behind even before the pandemic.

The pandemic "was not a health shock as much as people want to portray it to be," Masters said. "For the 40 years leading up to the pandemic, the United States was distinguishing itself as being quite poor in health and mortality outcomes." (Stobbe, Associated Press, 11/29; Anthes/Mueller, New York Times, 11/29; Habeshian, Axios, 11/29; Sullivan, NBC News, 11/28; Kekatos, ABC News, 11/29; Arias et al., Vital Statistics Rapid Release, accessed 11/30)

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