According to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the life expectancy of Americans got shorter–the overall life expectancy in the U.S. was 78.6 years, down .1 from the previous year. Men can expect to live 76.1 years, down from 76.3. Women held steady at 81.1 years.
Report says low-income, less-educated blacks in the South have shortest life spans.
During the 20th century, advances in medications and other treatments were responsible for dramatic increases in how long people lived. But deaths from drug overdoses, chronic liver disease, suicide, Alzheimer’s and blood infections (septicemia) have all gone up, resulting in a shortened average life span.
Diseases such as heart and cancer still kill most Americans, however, deaths from heart disease have been declining. Between 2006 and 2016, death rates from from drug overdoses increased 72 percent and for suicides, 23 percent.
According to the report, Hispanics had the highest life expectancy at 81.8 years. Non-Hispanic whites were next, with 78.5 years, followed by non-Hispanic blacks, with 74.8 years.
Where you live can also affect how long you can expect to live.
Areas in the bottom 25 percent of the report had four things in common: Most of the people were less educated, low income and predominantly black, and they were in the South.
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NPR reported that suicide was the 10th leading cause of early death in the USA and increasing ; just behind liver cancer .
Seems to be a lot of unhappiness and unresolved mental illness in the USA beyond that seem in other modern countries .