U.S. life expectancy hits record high as major diseases decline

A report from the federal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday has reported that U.S. life expectancy, for the first time, has surpassed 78 years. The Government report issued by the National Center for Health Statistics, revealed that life expectancy in the United States hit a record high of 78.1 years in 2006.

Life expectancy rate was up for both men and women, and for white and black people. The span of life rose to new highs for white males (76 years), black males (70 years), white females (81 years), and black females (76.9 years).

According to the federal health officials, the 2006 increase is mainly due to decreasing mortality rates in most leading causes of death. NCHS’ data, based on more than 95% of death certificates collected in 2006, shows that increase in the life expectancy mainly resulted from falling mortality rates for 14 of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Influenza and pneumonia deaths had dropped by 13 percent, compared to the previous year (2005), reducing the death chances of people with heart disease and other conditions. It is a primary explanation for the 22,000 fewer deaths in 2006 from 2005, experts said.

Declines were also noted for other major diseases. For example, chronic lower respiratory diseases registered a 6.5 percent drop, stroke, a 6.4 percent drop, heart disease, 5.5 percent, adult diabetes, 5.3 percent, hypertension, 5.0 percent, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, 3.3 percent drop, suicide, 2.8 percent, septicemia or blood poisoning, 2.7 percent, cancer, 1.6 percent drop and accidents registered 1.5 percent drop.

"I think the most surprising thing is that we had declines in just about every major cause of death," said Robert Anderson, who oversaw work on the report for the health statistics center.

In addition, the U.S. infant mortality rate dropped more than 2% to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, from the 2005 rate of 6.9. Life span for a child born in 2006 was on average 78.1 years, four months longer than the 2005 average, the report says.

The overall death rate in 2006 in the United States fell to 776.4 deaths per 100,000 people from 799 deaths per 100,000 in 2005. In figures, 2,425,900 Americans died in 2006, a decrease of 22,117 from the 2005 total, the CDC said.

Despite the significant increase in Americans’ life span, the United States’ life expectancy is still lower than other nations. The country of about 300 million people continues to lag behind about 30 countries in estimated life span, according to World Health Organization data. Japan is at the top with an average life expectancy of 83, followed by Switzerland, France, and Australia with more than 80 years, WHO statistics show.