The life expectancy gap between Black and white Americans, which had been narrowing, is now at six years, the widest it has been since 1998. Life expectancy declined by a whopping 11.8 years from 1917 to 1918, Arias said, bringing average life spans down to 39 years. This is all happening against a backdrop of declining life expectancy that had only briefly recovered from the drug epidemic; some researchers said that drug deaths, which began surging again in 2019 and 2020, may continue to tug life expectancy rates downward. Life expectancy represents the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if current death rates do not change. Deaths from drug overdoses declined in 2018 for the first time in nearly 30 years, lifting life expectancy that year.

Source: bd News24 February 18, 2021 05:03 UTC