--- title: US Life Expectancy Reaches Record High: CDC description: Americans can expect to live longer as the leading causes of death—heart disease and cancer—become a little less deadly canonical: https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-08T11:46:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:30.447Z article:section: Health og:title: US Life Expectancy Reaches Record High: CDC og:description: Americans can expect to live longer as the leading causes of death—heart disease and cancer—become a little less deadly og:url: https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbeb9b848683e2a98/69875f3d428a9e5738cc4605/birthrate-united-states.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Baby Friendly hospital Shady Grove Adventist og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: US Life Expectancy Reaches Record High: CDC twitter:description: Americans can expect to live longer as the leading causes of death—heart disease and cancer—become a little less deadly twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbeb9b848683e2a98/69875f3d428a9e5738cc4605/birthrate-united-states.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Can Now Expect to Live Longer Than Ever > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now [Watch (HLS stream): A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-08-20. A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 8, 2014 11:46 AM UTC  A three-day old baby girl at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, in Rockville, Maryland, Sept. 5, 2014. A three-day old baby girl at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, in Rockville, Maryland, Sept. 5, 2014. Evelyn Hockstein—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 8, 2014 11:46 AM UTC A child born in America today will live longer than at any other time in history, according to a [new government report](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db168.htm) that forecasts average life expectancy for the U.S. population at 78.8 years. Life expectancy for people born in 2012—the latest year researched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—was 0.1 years longer than it was in 2011\. Women can expect to live to 81.2 years, while men can expect to live to 76.4 years. The infant mortality rate decreased 1.5% in 2012 to a historic low of 597.8 infant deaths per 100,000 live births, the CDC said. Eight of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. became less deadly in 2012, with death rates for heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and kidney disease all reduced between 2011 and 2012\. Suicide rates, however, did climb significantly. “Much of the recent improvement in death rates and life expectancy for population groups examined can be attributed to reductions in death rates from major causes of death, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases,” the CDC said. ## Transcript Sexual pleasure is only one part of what men and women want from each other. They want intimacy, they want closeness, they want understanding, they want comfort, they want fun, and they want somebody who really cares about them beyond going to bed with them, and I think people are always seeking that. In every generation. [ MUSIC ] My name is Shirley Zussman. I just reached a hundred years of age, and I am a practicing sex therapist. I was invited with my husband to a lecture in New Jersey, in 1966. Masters and Johnson were the speakers. No body knew about them. Human sexual response had just been published, what I saw was a couple who will say that people had problems in an area in their lives that was very important and they were recognizing that it was all not just. Glamorous and wonderful to be sexual. One had to almost had to learn how to be a good partner and to endure the pleasure not only for yourself but for each other. And I thought we can do that. Why can't we do that? And we applied for training with Masters and Johnson at that time. The patients that came to us were people who read the paper. The only way they do anything about the work that was being done there. And the problems they came with, was somewhat different than the problems they come with today. Mostly, women came because would put out orgasmic, they didn't know how to achieve an orgasm, but they wanted one. It was so over that ,. Goal they had for themselves and how do I get there. That was one Masters and Johnson's contribution that there was a relatively simple way to start learning about your body. In other words, get, get to know your, who you are sexually and physically and that was. And encouragement for masturbation for learning what makes you feel good. I see a big change in the we view casual sex. In the 60's I think it was not just casual it was frantic. I'm shocked at the lack of connection with people; because of iPhones, even I love my iPhone. There is so much less actual physical connection, there's less touching, there's less talking, there's less holding, there's less looking, [ INAUDIBLE ]. People get pleasure from looking at each other. But the most common problem, I would say, in the sex therapy that I live in, is a lack of desire. You have to look at your priorities. You have to decide what is important to make you feel good about yourself and your life. And to help make your partner feel good and to establish something that is gratifying that really fills a need that we all have to be close to somebody. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/"},"headline":"Americans Can Now Expect to Live Longer Than Ever","datePublished":"2014-10-08T11:46:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:30.447Z","description":"Americans can expect to live longer as the leading causes of death—heart disease and cancer—become a little less deadly","url":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/","keywords":["Aging"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbeb9b848683e2a98/69875f3d428a9e5738cc4605/birthrate-united-states.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbeb9b848683e2a98/69875f3d428a9e5738cc4605/birthrate-united-states.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Baby Friendly hospital Shady Grove Adventist","caption":"A three-day old baby girl at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, in Rockville, Maryland, Sept. 5, 2014.","creditText":"Evelyn Hockstein—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aging/","name":"Aging"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/","name":"Americans Can Now Expect to Live Longer Than Ever"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now","description":"A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uJFYIrvP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-20T13:40:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3481226/life-expectancy-record/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```