--- title: U.S. Life Expectancy: Americans Live Shorter in 2015 description: Life expectancy in the United States declined by a tenth of a year in 2015 from the year prior to hit 78.8 canonical: https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-08T14:16:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:12:18.157Z article:section: Health og:title: Life Expectancy in the U.S. Declines for the First Time in 20 Years og:description: The last decline occurred in the 1990s amidst the AIDS crisis og:url: https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cc1144468eea06/6988affff887dcf795e98581/when-are-women-fertile.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Close-up of a clock hanging on the wall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Life Expectancy in the U.S. Declines for the First Time in 20 Years twitter:description: The last decline occurred in the 1990s amidst the AIDS crisis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cc1144468eea06/6988affff887dcf795e98581/when-are-women-fertile.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Life Expectancy Declines for the First Time in 20 Years  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 8, 2016 2:16 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 8, 2016 2:16 PM UTC Life expectancy in the United States declined by a tenth of a year in 2015 from the year prior to hit 78.8, according to new government [data](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db267.htm). The data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the ten leading causes of death remained consistent between 2014 and 2015\. Still, death rates for eight of those ten causes of death increased significantly, including heart disease, accidental injuries, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Heart disease alone kills more than 600,000 people, according to the [CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm). The last decline occurred in the 1990s amidst the AIDS crisis that eventually [killed](http://kff.org/hivaids/fact-sheet/the-hivaids-epidemic-in-the-united-states/) nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. since the 1980s. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/"},"headline":"U.S. Life Expectancy Declines for the First Time in 20 Years","datePublished":"2016-12-08T14:16:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:12:18.157Z","description":"The last decline occurred in the 1990s amidst the AIDS crisis","url":"https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/","keywords":["Life Expectancy","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cc1144468eea06/6988affff887dcf795e98581/when-are-women-fertile.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81cc1144468eea06/6988affff887dcf795e98581/when-are-women-fertile.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Close-up of a clock hanging on the wall","caption":"Close-up of a clock hanging on the wall","creditText":"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/life-expectancy/","name":"Life Expectancy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4594928/us-life-expectancy-decline/","name":"U.S. Life Expectancy Declines for the First Time in 20 Years"}}]}] ```