--- title: Life Expectancy Gap Between Black, White Americans Narrows description: The life expectancy gap between black and white Americans has been steadily closing within the last two decades to its smallest in history. canonical: https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-09T12:08:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:41.510Z og:title: Life Expectancy Gap Narrows Between Black and White Americans og:description: “The gap is now the narrowest it has been since the beginning of the 20th century" og:url: https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Life Expectancy Gap Narrows Between Black and White Americans twitter:description: “The gap is now the narrowest it has been since the beginning of the 20th century" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Life Expectancy Gap Between Black and White Americans Narrower Than Ever  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 9, 2016 12:08 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 9, 2016 12:08 PM UTC The [life expectancy gap](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/health/blacks-see-gains-in-life-expectancy.html?%5Fr=1) between black and white Americans has been steadily closing within the last two decades to an all-time record low, according to recently released statistics. The suicide rate among black men has dropped from 1999 to 2014, according to the New York _Times_, which cited federal data. They are the only racial group to see a decrease, the newspaper said. The _Times_ also reports that infant mortality among blacks has dropped by more than a fifth since the late 1990s and that there has been a 40% decline in the rate of deaths by homicides for the racial group from 1995 to 2013. “Blacks are catching up,” said Samuel Preston, a demographer at the University of Pennsylvania, told the _Times_. “The gap is now the narrowest it has been since the beginning of the 20th century, and that’s really good news.” The life expectancy gap between blacks and whites was [seven years in 1990](http://www.businessinsider.com/huge-racial-gap-in-life-expectancy-2014-1). By 2014, it was 3.4 years — the smallest gap in history, the newspaper reports. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/health/blacks-see-gains-in-life-expectancy.html?%5Fr=1)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/"},"headline":"Life Expectancy Gap Between Black and White Americans Narrower Than Ever","datePublished":"2016-05-09T12:08:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:41.510Z","description":"“The gap is now the narrowest it has been since the beginning of the 20th century\"","url":"https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/","keywords":["Living"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4322570/life-expectancy-black-americans/","name":"Life Expectancy Gap Between Black and White Americans Narrower Than Ever"}}]}] ```