In terms of life expectancy, the richest country in the world has long and firmly settled in the fourth ten in the most authoritative world ranking of the World He alth Organization. Recently, many countries have significantly improved the he alth care system, the population is increasingly inclined towards a he althy lifestyle and proper nutrition. But it seems that in the United States, these trends have not affected the bulk of the population - life expectancy in the United States has been declining in the past two years.
Place in the world
In most European and developed Asian countries (even in Chile and Cyprus), people live longer on average 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, according to the World He alth Organization. In the world ranking, Costa Rica is one notch higher, not the richest country in Latin America. And the next place goes to Cuba, one of the poorest countries in the world.
AverageLife expectancy for men in the US is 76.9 years. The same number of men live on the island of Liberty. 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 for women in the US 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 He alth 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 about 5 years shorter than that of women, and blacks live 4 years less than other Americans.
So far, public he alth experts believe that it is impossible to speak of a trend. However, mortality rates are cause for concern, especially the significant increase in deaths from opiate overdose. In 2016, 63,000 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.
Top causes of death
The main causes of death have remained the same over the years: most of all die from heart-related diseases (23, 4%), in second place - oncological diseases (22%), then chronic diseasesrespiratory tract, stroke, kidney disease, suicide. The trend in recent years is an increase in the number of suicides, deaths from Alzheimer's disease and bodily injuries (this includes death from drug overdose). There was a slight increase in the number of deaths among white Americans and black men. For Black and Hispanic women, the death rate remained the same.
At the end of October 2017, US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in connection with the opioid epidemic. There has been a significant increase in the use of prescription opiate pain relievers in the country. Which led to an increase in drug trafficking, including the use of heroin and street fentanyl.
At the same time, deaths due to cancer have declined due to significant advances in treatment. The number of newborn deaths in the country decreased from 589.5 deaths per 100,000 births in 2015 to 587 deaths per 100,000 births in 2016.
Long-livers and not-so
Despite not very good life expectancy in the US, the demographic situation in the country is quite favorable. This confirms the positive population growth, low infant mortality and the largest number of centenarians in the world. About 72 thousand people over 100 years old live in the USA, which is associated with the high level of American medicine and a developed social system.
However, not all states in the country have equal access to good quality he alth care. More than 40 million people do not have he alth insurance. The quality of life is also strongly influenced by a significant difference in natural conditions and the ecological situation. As a result, life expectancy in the US varies greatly by state.
We althy and developed states live the longest. In first place is Connecticut (about 80.6 years). Massachusetts, Colorado and Minnesota followed with slightly lower figures. At the very bottom of the rankings is South Dakota, where the average live is 66.8 years.
