US life expectancy rose to 79 years in 2024—the highest mark in American history. It's the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation's top killers, including heart disease, cancer, and drug overdoses, per the AP. What's more, preliminary statistics suggest a continued improvement in 2025. "It's pretty much good news all the way around," said Robert Anderson of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the 2024 data on Thursday.
Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population's health, is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. For decades, US life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, just shy of 79 years. It was relatively flat for several years before plunging as the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 1.2 million Americans. In 2021, life expectancy fell to just under 76 1/2 years. It has been rebounding since, though the US still ranks below dozens of other countries.
In 2024, about 3.07 million US residents died, about 18,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women. Heart disease remained the nation's leading cause of death, but the death rate due to it dropped by about 3% for the second year in a row. A combination of factors are likely at play, including advances in medical treatments and weight management, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, who treats and studies heart disease at Northwestern University. Deaths from unintentional injuries—a category that includes drug overdoses—fell the most, dropping more than 14% in 2024. COVID-19, which only a few years ago was the nation's No. 3 killer, in 2024 dropped out of the top 10.
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