life expectancy

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Why Tennis Might Be the Best Sport for Life
Why You Should Take Up Tennis
OPINION
Sep 8, 2025 9:21 AM CDT

Why You Should Take Up Tennis

It's a lifetime sport that boosts health, longevity, and brainpower

(Newser) - Every year, the US Open reminds America of tennis' enduring allure—but beyond the spotlight and sold-out crowds, this sport quietly offers lifelong health benefits, accessible fun, and a workout for both body and mind. If you're looking for an activity to stick with, tennis might just be...

Top 10 Countries for Life Expectancy

Monaco has world's highest life expectancy, at 88.6 years on average, per Visual Capitalist rankings

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States is an average of 78.6 years , but that doesn't hold a candle to how long people can expect to live in some other nations. Using data from the UN's World Population Prospects portal, Visual Capitalist looked at life expectancy at birth...

Denmark Sets Europe's Highest Retirement Age

Critics warn the move, which makes 70 the target age by 2040, hits hardest for blue-collar workers

(Newser) - Denmark is set to have Europe's highest retirement age after lawmakers approved a measure to raise it to 70 by 2040. Under current Danish law, the retirement age is linked to life expectancy and recalculated every five years. It's now 67, increasing to 68 in 2030 and...

Life Expectancy in South Barely Budged Over the Last Century
Life Expectancy in South
Barely Budged Since 1900
new study
Apr 30, 2025 3:16 PM CDT

Life Expectancy in South Barely Budged Since 1900

Particularly for women

(Newser) - Over the course of the 20th century, the average American's lifespan took a big jump—the key part being on average. A new study finds that while some states made major gains in life expectancy over the past century, others have barely moved the needle. The study published...

We May Have Hit a Wall on Life Expectancy
We May Have Hit a
Wall on Life Expectancy
NEW STUDY
Oct 8, 2024 1:17 PM CDT

We May Have Hit a Wall on Life Expectancy

Study suggests humanity may be nearing the upper limit on overall life expectancy

(Newser) - Humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy, according to a new study. Advances in medical technology and genetic research—not to mention larger numbers of people making it to age 100—are not translating into marked jumps in lifespan overall, according to researchers who found shrinking longevity increases...

Life Expectancy Is on the Rise Again, With Caveats

COVID and drug overdoses still pose an issue, per the CDC

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States is on the upswing once again, its first positive motion in two years. NPR reports on new CDC stats that show in 2022, the average came in at 77.5 years, an increase from the 76.4 years set in 2021. But both COVID...

US Life Expectancy Jumps, but There's Another 'Bleak' Stat

Life expectancy is now 77.5 years, but that boost hasn't recouped pandemic losses

(Newser) - Fresh stats out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer some good news and some bad news in terms of our collective longevity. "The good news is that life expectancy increased for the first time in two years," the CDC's Elizabeth Arias, a co-author on...

Life Expectancy Gap Between Sexes Is Growing
Life Expectancy Gap
Between Sexes Is Growing
NEW STUDY
Nov 19, 2023 5:35 PM CST

Life Expectancy Gap Between Sexes Is Growing

COVID, overdoses expanded gap to almost 6 years

(Newser) - On social media, "Why women live longer than men" is a common caption for videos showing all kinds of foolish stunts. But the real answer for the large—and growing—gap in life expectancy is grimmer, researchers say. According to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine...

Life Expectancy Is Falling, and Maybe Not Why You Think

It's not the pandemic, gun violence, or opioids—it's chronic illness, explains the 'Washington Post'

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the US is going in the wrong direction . It peaked at 78.9 years back in 2014 and has been declining ever since, with the most recent figure at 76.4 years. You can't blame the pandemic, because the trend was in place well before that,...

Misinformation Is Hurting Life Expectancy: FDA Chief

Robert Califf says Americans are being misled on more than COVID

(Newser) - Life expectancy is the US has been declining , including in relation to comparable high-income countries, and one federal official says part of the reason is the recent explosion of misinformation. "Why aren’t we using medical products as effectively and efficiently as our peer countries?" Robert Califf, commissioner of...

US Life Expectancy Falls for Second Year in a Row

COVID, overdoses were main culprits in 2021's figures, CDC says

(Newser) - More than 20 years of gradual increases in American life expectancy have been wiped out by the twin plagues of COVID-19 and opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has released its final estimates for 2021, and "it's not a good year...

For 2nd Straight Year, US Life Expectancy Plunges
US Life Expectancy
Plunges, Again
Aug 31, 2022 1:31 AM CDT

US Life Expectancy Plunges, Again

Last comparable decrease was during WWII

(Newser) - US life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, falling by nearly a year from 2020, according to a government report being released Wednesday. In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American lifespan has shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decrease happened...

Men, Don't Throw in the Towel on Longevity Quite Yet

Despite lower life expectancy, guys still have 'substantial chance of outliving females,' per study

(Newser) - It's long been suggested that women outlive the men in their lives, but new research suggests that may be an oversimplified conclusion. Danish scientists who looked at the bigger picture found that the guys, especially those with a ring on their finger or who hold a college degree, might...

Latest Drop in Life Expectancy Hit White People the Hardest

It fell in 2021 for the second year in a row

(Newser) - After 2020 saw the biggest one-year decline in US life expectancy since World War II, researchers hoped COVID vaccines would reverse the trend in 2021. Instead, life expectancy dropped for the second year in a row, according to a new study . Researchers say a 1.9-year drop in life expectancy...

US Life Expectancy Plunge Is 'Basically Catastrophic'

It fell by 1.5 years last year, even more for Black and Hispanic Americans

(Newser) - US life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. The drop spelled out by the Centers for Disease Control and...

Good News on the HIV Front
Good News
on the HIV Front
NEW STUDY
Jul 10, 2021 9:30 AM CDT

Good News on the HIV Front

Those with virus who receive treatment have same life expectancy as those without: researchers

(Newser) - Patients who tested positive for HIV used to fear a "certain death sentence," as there's no cure for the virus, per HealthDay News . New research puts those fears to rest, with scientists saying that those with HIV in the US can now expect a similar life expectancy...

CDC Reports 'Huge Decline' in Life Expectancy

It's down by a full year, according to data from the first half of 2020

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics nearly two years, according to...

Life Expectancy Has Dived, With Huge Racial Disparities

2020 has seen the biggest US life expectancy drop in decades, researchers say

(Newser) - The pandemic cut the average life expectancy of Americans by more than a year in 2020, the largest single-year decline in more than 40 years, according to a study released Thursday. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that based on provisional estimates of...

CDC: COVID Could Kill 92K in the Next 3 Weeks

1 in 3 LA County residents has been infected

(Newser) - While the start of mass vaccinations means that the end of the pandemic could be on the horizon, some brutal months lie ahead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday. Some 38,000 Americans died from COVID-19 in the first two weeks of 2021—almost 10% of the...

US Life Expectancy Rises for First Time in 4 Years

Cancer, overdose deaths fell in 2018

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States is up for the first time in four years. The increase is small—just a month—but marks at least a temporary halt to a downward trend. The rise is due to lower death rates for cancer and drug overdoses, the AP reports. "...

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