Life expectancy in the US is now among the worst of any developed country, according to a damning global report.
An American born today can expect to live just over 76 years — a nearly 30-year low — which is lower than in countries like crime-ridden Colombia, Estonia and China.
The 2023 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report compared life expectancy and a range of other health statistics in 48 developed countries for the period 2019 to 2022.
With a life expectancy of 76.4 years, America ranks 34th – 15th from the bottom – and well below the OECD average of 80.3 years.
The status of the country has not changed much in the past ten years. In the 2021, 2019 and 2013 OECD reports, the US ranked 16th from the bottom. Twenty years ago, the country fared slightly better: the 2003 report ranked the US tenth from the bottom.
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The above graph shows life expectancy at birth in four dozen countries around the world. The US ranks 15th from the bottom
The graph above shows the change in life expectancy in 48 countries. Life expectancy in the US fell by 2.4 years between 2019 and 2021
The report attributes America’s low life expectancy to obesity, heart disease, alcohol consumption, smoking and diabetes. While previous similar reports have attributed excess deaths to fentanyl and gun violence.
The report shows that the United States has fallen behind countries plagued by crime and violence, such as Colombia, which has never topped the U.S. in OEDC reports since its inclusion in 2015.
The South American country is home to a range of criminal groups and gangs and is one of the three largest cocaine-producing countries in the world. An estimated 24,000 fighters are present in the country as part of armed groups and organized crime.
In 2022, Colombia’s homicide rate was 26.1 per 100,000 people, compared to the U.S. rate of 6.3 per 100,000 people.
Around the world, people live the longest in Japan, which had a life expectancy of 84.5 years in 2022. Switzerland was in second place with 83.9 years and South Korea followed in third place with 83.6 years.
Countries completing the top 10 included: Australia, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Luxembourg.
Britain ranked 26th and had a life expectancy of 80.4 years in 2020; the most recent annual data are available.
The bottom three countries next to South Africa were Indonesia, where life expectancy was 68.8 years, and India, where people live an average of 70.2 years.
Not only does the U.S. have a worse-than-average lifespan, the country’s life expectancy has fallen by more than two years, according to the OEDC report, putting it among the top six countries with the largest declines.
From 2019 to 2021, the US shaved 2.4 years off the average lifespan. The countries where life expectancy fell more sharply include Bulgaria (decrease of 3.7 years), Slovakia (decrease of 3.2 years), Romania (decrease of 2.8 years), Latvia (decrease of 2.6 years) and Poland (decrease of 2.5 years).
In fact, between 2010 and 2019, according to the only data available, life expectancy in Britain increased by almost a year.
The average decline in the OECD between 2019 and 2021 was 0.7 years.
The report attributed many of the losses to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, increases in life expectancy were already slowing before the pandemic, especially for women.
Preliminary data for 2022 shows recovery to pre-pandemic levels in some countries.
The above graph shows the causes of death in four dozen countries around the world. Of the deaths, circulatory diseases, including stroke and heart disease, and cancer remained the two leading causes in most countries.
Above you see the percentages of causes of death around the world. Circulatory diseases were responsible for 28 percent of deaths worldwide, while cancer was responsible for 21 percent. Covid was responsible for seven percent of deaths
The report states: ‘While life expectancy has increased in all OECD countries over the past half-century, progress stagnated in the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many countries experiencing outright declines in life expectancy during the pandemic.’
The report states that heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes and an increase in the aging population are making it difficult for countries to make progress in extending lifespans.
Smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity are among the leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases – conditions that are not caused by infection and cannot be spread from person to person – which cause the most deaths worldwide.
In 2021, approximately 12.89 million people died around the world, equivalent to 932 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
This is approximately 1.5 million more deaths than in 2019, largely due to the pandemic.
In the US, the death rate was 1,034 deaths per 100,000 people.
Of the deaths, circulatory diseases, including stroke and heart disease, and cancer remained the two leading causes in most countries.
Circulatory diseases were responsible for 28 percent of deaths worldwide, while cancer was responsible for 21 percent.
Covid was responsible for seven percent of deaths.
In the US, of the causes of death identified in 2021, the most people died from circulatory diseases, followed by cancer and Covid-19.
This report is not the only recent data revealing the dire situation in America.
Earlier this year it was announced that the US is among the top 10 countries with the highest death rates for certain non-communicable diseases.
Researchers from the life insurance company William Russell analyzed data on mortality rates from six common non-communicable diseases: cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, liver disease and kidney disease.
Turkey took the top spot with the highest overall mortality score and the United States ranked ninth overall.
America’s poor ranking was attributed to a combination of high obesity rates – which increase the risk of multiple diseases – and previously higher rates of smoking.
A second separate report from September also exposed the grim life-and-death situation in America, when it found that the US could avoid 1 million deaths a year if the country’s death rates were on par with other wealthy countries .
Researchers looked at all-cause mortality rates by population size since the 1930s in nearly two dozen comparable countries, including Britain, Canada, Japan, Australia and 17 European countries.
They found that despite the US being the richest country, it has suffered more deaths per capita than any other country since about 1980.
The study pointed to the opioid and fentanyl epidemic, gun violence and obesity-related deaths, all of which were exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, as the reason America is an outlier.
Steffie Woolhandler, senior author of the September study and professor at Hunter College’s School of Urban Public Health, also blamed the US health care system, insurers, corporate greed and politicians for the US’s preventable deaths. experienced.
Woolhandler said: “We waste hundreds of billions every year on health insurers’ profits and paperwork, while tens of millions cannot afford medical care, healthy food or a decent place to live.
“Americans die younger than their counterparts elsewhere because when corporate profits conflict with health, our politicians side with corporations,” she added.
Unlike many countries with the lowest mortality rates and highest life expectancy, the United States does not provide its residents with universal health care coverage.
The OECD report shows that the average percentage of the organization’s residents with insurance coverage was 98 percent.
In 2021, in 23 of the countries, 100 percent of residents were covered by public insurance. Another two were covered 100 percent by private health insurance. Another instance was 100 percent covered by a mix of private and public.
With 53 percent of residents covered by private insurance and 38 percent covered by public insurance, the U.S. ranked fourth among the lowest OEDC countries in insurance coverage nationwide.
The country ranked higher only than Mexico (72 percent coverage), Romania (86 percent coverage) and tied with Costa Rica (91 percent coverage).