U.S. life expectancy fell further in 2021 due to COVID

Aug 31 (Reuters) - Life expectancy fell in the United States in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat due to COVID-19 deaths, provisional government data showed on Wednesday.

The nearly one-year decline from 2020 to 76.1 years marked the largest two-year drop in life expectancy at birth in close to a century, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

Disparity in life expectancy between men and women also widened last year to the highest in more than two decades, with...