U.S. Life Expectancy Plummeted by 1.8 Years in 2020, for Obvious Reasons

The still-raging coronavirus pandemic helped to wipe 1.8 years off U.S. life expectancy last year, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy fell to 77 years in 2020, the figures show, in the most dramatic one-year drop in life-expectancy since at least World War II. Elizabeth Arias, a demographer at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, said she had to recheck her calculations several times because the drop was so much bigger she had anticipated. “I knew there was going to be...