Life expectancy in US could stall by 2050

Americans’ life expectancy is expected to stall by 2050 because of increasing obesity and drug use, researchers said this week.

Right now, the country is on an upward trajectory, but improvements are expected to slow. In 2022, life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 76.4 years in 2021.

By 2035, life expectancy will increase to 79.9 years and by 80.4 years in 2050 for men and women. However, despite progress made over the past three decades, the country will drop from 80th place in life expectancy to 108th by that year, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation cautioned.

“In spite of modest increases in life expectancy overall, our models forecast health improvements slowing down due to rising rates of obesity, which is a serious risk factor to many chronic diseases and forecasted to leap to levels never before seen,” Christopher Murray, the institute’s director, said in a statement. “The rise in obesity and overweight rates in the U.S., with [the institute] forecasting over 260 million people affected by 2050, signals a public health crisis of unimaginable scale.”

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Source: The Independent, 6 December 2024