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Chart 1 of 1 · Health

How long do Americans live, and how has that changed since 1900?

The chart's answer: A baby born in the US in 2018 could expect to live 78.7 years, up from 47.3 in 1900. The sharpest drop was in 1918, to 39.1 years, during the influenza pandemic. This CDC dataset stops at 2018; later NCHS reports put life expectancy at 78.4 years in 2023 and 79.0 in 2024, after a fall during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key numbers (Life expectancy at birth, years)

• Newest: 78.7 in 2018
• First on the chart: 47.3 in 1900
• 1900 to 2018: up 31.4 (+66%)
• Biggest rise from one point to the next: 15.6, 1918 to 1919
• Biggest drop from one point to the next: 11.8, 1917 to 1918
• Highest: 78.9 (2014)
• Lowest: 39.1 (1918)
• 2014 is about 2 times 1918
• Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Death rates and life expectancy at birth, data as of December 31, 2018

Questions

1. Find the sharpest drop on the chart. What happened in the world that year?

   • → 1900 to 2018: up 31.4 (+66%)
   • → Biggest drop from one point to the next: 11.8, 1917 to 1918

2. Life expectancy in 1900 was under 50. Does that mean most adults died in their 40s? What else could lower the average?

   • → 1900: 47.3

3. What changes in medicine, food or public health could explain the long rise?

   • → 1900 to 2018: up 31.4 (+66%)
   • → Biggest rise from one point to the next: 15.6, 1918 to 1919

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Death rates and life expectancy at birth (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2018 · chart.ly/charts/us-life-expectancy