Life Expectancy
View as PDF (Best for Printing)

Headline

The life expectancy of newborns has increased by seven years since 1970, to a record high of 77.8 years in 2004. (See Figure 1) However, life expectancy for black newborns is still five years less than life expectancy for white newborns (73.1 versus 78.3 years, respectively), although the difference in 2004 was the smallest ever recorded. (See Figure 2)

Importance

The average child born today in the United States is expected to live approximately 78 years, an increase of about 20 years since 1929. A large portion of the increase in life expectancy has been due to decreases in mortality during childhood. Overall, mortality rates for infants and children older than age one declined considerably during the 20th century, due in large part to advances in medical technology, improved socioeconomic conditions, and improvements in water and food safety and sanitation practices.¹

However, the United States has a shorter life expectancy than at least 20 other countries with populations of one million or more.² IIn addition, as discussed below, there are large differences in life expectancy by gender, race and income, indicating that there is still room for improvement.³

Trends

Life expectancy for newborns has increased substantially over the past 70 years, from 57.1 years for babies born in 1929⁴ to 77.8 years for babies born in 2004. (See Figure 1) Even within the past decade, life expectancy increased by more than two years, from 75.8 years in 1995 to 77.8 years in 2004.

It is estimated that 1.3 percent of children born in 2002 (the latest year for which such estimates are available) will die before they reach the age of 20, compared with 10.9 percent of children in the early 1930s.⁵ (See Figure 3)

While females have higher life expectancies at birth than males, the gender gap in life expectancy has narrowed since 1979, when the gap was at a peak of 7.8 years. In 2004, the gender gap was 5.2 years. (See Table 1)

Differences by Gender

Average life expectancy and survival rates are higher among females than they are among males, regardless of race. In the year 2004, for example, the average life expectancy for males was 75.2 years, compared with 80.4 years for females. (See Figure 2) Males are more likely than females to die before reaching age 20 (1.6 percent versus 1.1 percent, respectively, in 2002, the latest year for which such estimates are available). (See Figure 3)

> Back to Top

Differences by Race

Recent increases in life expectancy have been especially pronounced among black males, whose average life expectancy increased from 64.5 years in 1990 to 69.5 years in 2004, following a decline in life expectancy in the late 1980s. (See Table 1) Some of this increase reflects declines in homicide rates among black males during the mid- and late-1990s. Despite these increases, however, black children are still almost twice as likely as white children to die before reaching age 20. Slightly more than two percent of black children born in 2002 were expected to die before reaching age 20, compared with just over one percent of white children born in the same year.(See Figure 3)

In addition to being more likely to survive to age 20, whites also have longer life expectancies than blacks. In 2004, white newborns had an average life expectancy of 78.3 years, compared with 73.1 years among black newborns. However, it is important to note that the gap between the two races has decreased, to 5.2 years in 2004, the smallest gap ever recorded. (See Figure 2)

Related Indicators

Infant, Child, and Teen Death Rates

State and Local Estimates

None available

International Estimates

The Population Reference Bureau publishes life expectancy rates for most countries in its World Population Data Sheet 2006, available at
http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf

Estimates of the healthy life expectancy (the number of years of life spent in good health) for each of the member states of the World Health Organization are available for the year 2002 from The World Health Report 2004.
http://www.who.int/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_4_en.pdf

> Back to Top

National Goals

Through its Healthy People 2010 initiative, the federal government has set a national goal to increase life expectancy and improve the quality of life for individuals of all ages.

More information available at: http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/html/uih/uih_bw/uih_2.htm#goals

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

None available at this time.

Research References

¹Guyer, Bernard, Freedman, Mary Anne, Strobino, Donna M., and Sondik, Edward J. (2000). Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century. Pediatrics, 106(6), 1307-1317.

²2006 World Population Data Sheet of the Population Reference Bureau. Available: http://www.prb.org/pdf06/06WorldDataSheet.pdf

³U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010 (Conference Edition, in Two Volumes). Washington, DC: January 2000. Goal 1, p9. http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/html/uih/uih_bw/uih_2.htm#goals

⁴Arias E. United States life tables, 2000. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 51 no. 3. Hyattsville Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2002. Table 12. http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~tchapin/urp5261/exercise/US%20Life%20Tables%202000.pdf

⁵Elizabeth Arias. (2004). "United States Life Tables, 2002," National Vital Statistics Reports, 53(6): Table 10. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_06.pdf.

⁶Arias E. United States life tables, 2000. National vital statistics reports 51(3). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2002. Table 12. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/nvsr/51/51_03.htm

> Back to Top

Definition

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, "Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age and is based on a given set of age-specific death rates, generally the mortality conditions existing in the period mentioned. Life expectancy may be determined by race, sex, or other characteristics using age-specific death rates for the population with that characteristic."

For more information, please see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/nchsdefs/lifeexpectancy.htm

Data Source

Data for 2004: Miniño AM, Heron MP, Smith BL. (2006). "Deaths: Final Data for 2004." National vital statistics reports; Table 1. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/finaldeaths04/finaldeaths04.htm.

Data for 2003: National Center for Health Statistics. (2005). "Health, United States, 2005 With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans." Table 27 (updated March 2006). Hyattsville, Maryland. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus05.pdf.

Data for 2002 life expectancy: Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, Robert N. Anderson, and Chester Scott. "Deaths: Final Data for 2002" National Vital Statistics Reports, 53(5). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics: Table 8. Available at:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_05acc.pdf

Data for 2002 survivorship: Derived from E. Arias, "United States Life Tables, 2002," National vital statistics reports 53(6). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics: Table 10. Available:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_06.pdf

Data for 2001 life expectancy: Arias, Elizabeth, Robert Anderson, Hsiang-Ching Kung, Sherry Murphy and Kenneth Kochanek. Deaths: Final Data for 2001. National vital statistics reports 52(3). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2003. Table 7.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_03.pdf

Data for 2000 life expectancy: Arias E, Smith BL. Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2001. National vital statistics reports 51(5). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2003. Table A.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_05.pdf

Data for 1970-1999 life expectancy: Arias E. United States life tables, 2000. National vital statistics reports 51(3). Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2002. Tables 10 and 12.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/nvsr/51/51_03.htm

Raw Data Source

Mortality Data, National Vital Statistics System
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm

Approximate Date of Next Update

Fall 2007

> Back to Top