Life expectancy in the United States hit 79 years—a record high—in 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Jan. 29 report.
The life expectancy increased by a little more than seven months from 2023 overall. For females, it increased by about 3 1/2 months, to 81.4 years. For males, it increased by about 8 1/2 months, to 75.8 years.
“It’s pretty much good news all the way around,” said Robert Anderson, a statistician with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The uptick stemmed from a decline in 2024 in the death rates for leading causes of death, including drug overdoses.
Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population’s health, is an estimate of the average number of years that a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time.
For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose by at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, at just shy of 79 years.
It was relatively flat for several years before plunging as more than 1.2 million Americans died with or from COVID-19, according to the CDC. In 2021, life expectancy fell to a little less than 76.5 years. It has been rebounding since.
COVID-19, the 10th leading cause of death in 2023, dropped to the 15th leading cause of death in 2024. Deaths for which COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause plummeted by 37 percent, to 31,426, from the year prior.
About 3.07 million Americans died in 2024, 18,298 fewer than in 2023.
The top cause of death in 2024 was heart disease. The remaining causes in the top 10, in order, were cancer, unintentional injuries, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and suicide.
The heart disease death rate dropped by about 3 percent for the second year in a row. A combination of factors is likely at play, including advances in medical treatments and weight management, according to Dr. Sadiya Khan, who treats and studies heart disease at Northwestern University.
Deaths attributed to unintentional injuries, including drug overdoses, plummeted by 14.4 percent, the largest drop from 2023. Provisional CDC data show that drug overdoses decreased in 2024 from 2023 and continued to decline into early 2025.
The number of infant deaths was about the same in 2023 and 2024.
Death statistics for 2025 are not yet finalized, but preliminary data suggest that about 3.05 million deaths have been recorded.
That number may grow as more death certificates are rounded up and analyzed. Anderson said he expects that last year will end up as at least a slight improvement over 2024.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.