U.S. Life Expectancy Plunged in 2020 by Most Since World War II
U.S. life expectancy plunged by a full year in the first half of 2020, the biggest drop since World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the country.
Life expectancy at birth dropped to 77.8 years from 78.8 in 2019, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics. The report also showed widening disparities along racial and gender lines. Black men saw a three-year decline in life expectancy, while the gap between the sexes rose to 5.4 years, the most in more than two decades.
