Life Expectancy Increases, However Suicides Up in 2022

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For Immediate Release: November 29, 2023

Contact: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, Office of Communication (301) 458-4800
E-mail: paoquery@cdc.gov

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released two reports today examining provisional mortality data from 2022. While analysis shows the number and rate of suicides increased for the second year in a row, overall life expectancy at birth increased by just over a year. This increase regains some of the 2.4 years of life expectancy lost between 2019 and 2021.

The findings are featured in two new reports, “Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2022” and “Provisional Estimates of Suicide by Demographic Characteristics: United States, 2022.”

Findings from Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2022

From 2021 to 2022, life expectancy at birth in the U.S. increased by 1.1 years (from 76.4 to 77.5). This did not fully offset the loss of 2.4 years between 2019 and 2021 that resulted mostly from increases in excess deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years that a newborn would live if death patterns of the population at the time of their birth did not change during their lifetime. To calculate life expectancy at birth, we assume that the group will lose members at the expected rates from the time of their births throughout their lives. The report shows males regained 1.3 years of their 2.8-year life expectancy loss between 2019 and 2021, from 73.5 in 2021 to 74.8 in 2022. Females regained 0.9 year of their 2.1-year life expectancy loss, from 79.3 in 2021 to 80.2 in 2022.

American Indian-Alaskan Native people (AIAN) had the greatest increase in life expectancy from 65.6 in 2021 to 67.9 in 2022, regaining 2.3 years of their 6.2-year life expectancy loss between 2019 and 2021.

The Hispanic population had the second biggest increase in life expectancy in 2022 with a gain of 2.2 years (77.8 to 80.0), followed by the Black non-Hispanic population with a gain of 1.6 years (71.2 to 72.8), the Asian non-Hispanic population with 1.0-year gain (83.5 to 84.5), and the White non-Hispanic population with 0.8 year regained (76.7 to 77.5).

Other findings documented in this report:

  • The increase of 1.1 years in life expectancy from 2021 to 2022 primarily resulted from decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer, and homicide. Declines in COVID-19 mortality accounted for approximately 84% of the increase in life expectancy.
  • The increase in life expectancy would have been even greater if not for the offsetting increases in mortality due to influenza and pneumonia, perinatal conditions, kidney disease, nutritional deficiencies, and congenital malformations.
  • For men, the 1.3-year increase in life expectancy was attributed primarily to decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer, and homicide. For women, the 0.9-year increase in life expectancy was attributed mainly to decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, unintentional injuries, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Findings from Provisional Estimates of Suicide by Demographic Characteristics: United States, 2022 

The new provisional data show the number of suicides was 3% higher in 2022, increasing from 48,183 in 2021 to 49,449, the highest number ever recorded in the US. The previous all-time high was 48,344 in 2018.

The rate of suicides per 100,000 increased from 14.1 in 2021 to 14.3 in 2022, the highest since 1941.

Other findings documented in this report:

  • The percentage increase in the number of suicides was greater for females (4%) than males (2%), but the provisional 2022 suicide number for males (39,255) was nearly four times that of females (10,194).
  • The age-adjusted suicide rate was 1% higher in 2022 than 2021 for males (23.1 deaths per 100,000 compared with 22.8) and 4% higher for females (5.9 compared with 5.7).
  • Rates increased for all age groups 35 and older from 2021 to 2022. These increases ranged from 3% in ages 35–44 and ages 65–74 to 9% in ages 55–64.