February 02, 2026
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. rose to 79 years in 2024.
- Nine of the 10 leading causes of death in 2023 stayed the same in 2024, with suicide becoming the 10th leading cause.
Life expectancy in the United States rose from 2023 to 2024, “reaching its highest level ever,” according to a press release from the CDC.
The encouraging development is a shift from past reports revealing alarming differences in life expectancy between the U.S. and other high-income countries.
Data derived from: Mortality in the United States, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db548.htm.
In the analysis, Jiaqian Xu, MD, from the National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues assessed changes in life expectancy, death rates and the leading causes of death from 2023 to 2024 using data from CDC’s National Vital Statistics System.
There were 3,072,666 resident deaths in the U.S. in 2024, 18,298 fewer deaths vs. 2023.
The researchers reported that life expectancy for the American population was 79 years in 2024, an increase of 0.6 years from 2023.
They wrote this change resulted “largely because of decreases” in mortality from several leading causes of death like CVD, cancer, COVID-19 and homicide.
The life expectancy of men rose from 75.8 to 76.5 years during the study period, while women saw their life expectancy increase from 81.1 to 81.4 years.
The gap in life expectancy between men and women also decreased by 0.4 years from 2023 to 2024.
Xu and colleagues additionally found that the age-adjusted death rate dropped from 750.5 deaths per 100,000 Americans in 2023 to 722.1 in 2024 — a decrease of 3.8%. This rate decreased across all diverse populations for both men and women.
Age-specific deaths rates significantly decreased from 2023 to 2024 across all age groups 1 year or older — with decreases ranging from 1.9% (age, 75 to 84 years) to 15.9% (age, 25 to 34 years) — except for the 5 to 14 years age group, which “did not change significantly.”
The researchers noted that the infant mortality rate did not significantly change from 2023 to 2024, only slightly decreasing from 560.2 to 552.5 infant deaths per 100,000 live births.
The only significant change from 2023 to 2024 among the 10 leading causes of infant death was a 7.5% decrease for sudden infant death syndrome.
Overall, nine of the 10 leading causes of death remained the same from 2023 to 2024, with heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries remaining the first, second and third leading causes of death, respectively.
While these 10 leading causes accounted for 70.9% of all deaths in 2024, “age-adjusted death rates decreased for each of the 10 leading causes,” Xu and colleagues wrote.
Suicide became the 10th leading cause of death in 2024, replacing COVID-19, which dropped to the 15th leading cause of death.
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