Life expectancy in U.S. continues to drop, driven by COVID-19: NPR

People walk through the Times Square in New York, the United States, Dec. 14, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

According to the provisional analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the most dramatic drops in life expectancy in 2021 was among American Indian and Alaskan Native people.

NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Life expectancy in the United States fell in 2021, for the second year in a row and the biggest drop in almost 100 years, reported National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday.

In 2019, someone born in the country had a life expectancy of nearly 80 years. In 2020, because of the pandemic, that dropped to 77 years. In 2021 life-span dropped again, to 76.1 years, said the report.

Other high-income countries have seen a rebound in life expectancy, which made the U.S. results "all the more tragic," said Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health equity at Virginia Commonwealth University.

According to the provisional analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the most dramatic drops in life expectancy in 2021 was among American Indian and Alaskan Native people.

Between 2020 and 2021 the life expectancy for this group fell by almost two years, from 67.1 in 2020 to 65.2 in 2021, it added.