U.S. life expectancy drops again, marking worst 2-year decline in a century

U.S. life expectancy estimates have fallen to the worst levels since 1996, according to a new federal report, marking the second straight year of plummeting estimates in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Health officials say the drop in life expectancy from 2019 to 2021 — falling by 2.7 years to 76.1 – is now the country's worst two-year decline on record since 1923, according to provisional estimates published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

"The declines in life expectancy since 2019 are largely driven by the pandemic," the agency said in a news release. "COVID-19 deaths contributed to nearly three-fourths, or 74%, of the decline from 2019 to 2020, and 50% of the decline from 2020 to 2021."