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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

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More or Less: Why is life expectancy falling in the USA?

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Why is life expectancy falling in the USA?

06/05/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - More or Less, Why is life expectancy falling in the USA?

We ask why average life expectancy in America is falling so quickly.

Why is average life expectancy falling so quickly in America? We crunch the numbers.

The average life expectancy of Americans is shrinking at an alarming rate. 

Between 2019 and 2021, a staggering 2.7 years has been shaved off, leaving the revised figure at 76.1 years - the lowest it’s been in more than two decades. 

It also sees the U.S. rank 46th in the global life expectancy charts, behind Estonia and just a nose ahead of Panama. 

Paul Connolly is joined by John Burn Murdoch, Mary Pat Campbell and Dr Nick Mark to discuss why, on average, citizens of the world’s richest country are dying so young.
 
Presenter / Producer: Paul Connolly 
Researcher: Octavia Woodward 
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown

(Stethoscope with heartbeat graphic. Credit: Jonathan Kitchen/ Getty images)

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