In terms of average life expectancy, the richest country in the world has long been firmly located in the fourth ten in the most authoritative world ranking of the World Health Organization. Recently, many countries have significantly improved the health care system, the population is more and more inclined towards a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition. But it seems that in the United States these trends did not affect the bulk of the population — life expectancy in the United States has been declining over the past two years.
Place in the world
In most European and developed Asian countries (even in Chile and Cyprus) people live on average longer than in the most powerful country in the world. In terms of life expectancy, the United States (79.3 years) in 2017 is in 32nd place for women and 33rd for men among 222 countries of the world, according to the World Health Organization. Costa Rica, not the richest country in Latin America, is one notch higher in the world ranking. And the next place is occupied by Cuba, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The average life expectancy of men in the United States is 76.9 years. The same number of men live on Liberty Island. The United States was in the ranking due to the fact that women live 0.2 years longer than in Cuba. The average life expectancy of women in the United States is 81.6 years.
Indicator dynamics
Life expectancy in the US has been declining for two years, a similar situation in American history was more than 50 years ago, from 1962 to 1963. According to the National Center for Medical Statistics (NCHS), in 1916 the average life expectancy in the country decreased from 78.7 (in 2015) to 78.6 years. The life expectancy of men in the United States is less than that of women by about 5 years, and representatives of the black race live 4 years less than other Americans.
So far, public health experts believe that we can’t talk about the trend. However, mortality rates are a concern, especially a significant increase in death from an overdose of opiates. In 2016, 63 thousand Americans died from drug abuse. If this indicator continues to grow, then in 2018, life expectancy in the United States may decrease for the third time. The last time this happened in the country about a hundred years ago, during the Spanish flu epidemic.
Main causes of death
The main causes of mortality remain the same for many years: they die most of all from diseases related to the heart (2H, 4%), followed by oncological diseases (22%), then chronic respiratory diseases, stroke, kidney diseases suicides. The trend of recent years is an increase in the number of suicides, deaths from Alzheimer's disease and bodily harm (this includes death from an overdose of drugs). The number of deaths among light-skinned Americans and black men increased slightly. Women, representatives of the Negroid race, and Hispanics, the mortality rate remained the same.
At the end of October 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a state of emergency in connection with the opioid epidemic. There has been a significant increase in the use of prescription painkillers with opiates. Which led to an increase in illegal drug trafficking, including the use of heroin and street fentanyl.
At the same time, mortality due to cancer has decreased due to significant progress in treatment. The number of deaths among newborns in the country decreased from 589.5 deaths per 100 thousand births in 2015 to 587 deaths per 100 thousand births in 2016.
