An American born in 2015 can, on average, expect to live to be 78.9 years old, marking the first decline in overall life expectancy since 1993. The life expectancy for the average American man fell from 76.5 to 76.3 years, while the average woman’s expected lifespan dropped from 81.3 to 81.2 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The apparent reason is an increase in all but one of the top 10 causes of death, compared to 2014. While heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, up by almost 1 percent in 2015, cancer is the only cause of death that actually declined -- down by an impressive 1.7 percent.
A surprising statistic:
- The life expectancy of Americans is routinely lower than that of people in other developed nations, such as Canada, France, and Germany.
- The overall death rate in the U.S. in 2015 increased from 724.6 deaths per 100,000 people to 733.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
- Deaths attributed to Alzheimer’s disease were up by a sobering 15.7 percent. The medical community continues to search for effective therapies -- experimental or otherwise -- to treat the condition.