“More Than Half a Million Extra Deaths” Every Year In U.S.

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A previous blog post (Life Expectancy Dropping in U.S.) showed an alarming trend in which the life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped to about 76 years, nearly 6 years lower than peer countries

This article discusses this topic further. David Wallace-Wells, NY Times 8/9/23: Why Is America Such a Deadly Place? An excerpt:

“Life expectancy in the United States took an unprecedented turn for the worse, placing it not among its wealthy peers, but below Kosovo, Albania, Sri Lanka and Algeria (and just ahead of Panama, Turkey and Lebanon)…

But the loss is jaw-dropping by another measure — the sheer number of needless deaths. Before the pandemic, roughly a half million more people in America died each year than would have died, on average, in wealthy peer countries. In each of the first two years of the pandemic, the number surpassed one million….

The much larger American anomaly is its deaths among the young and middle-aged — among whom violent deaths, in particular, subtract many more years of life than would almost any natural cause of death, which overwhelmingly strikes much later in life.”

The article describes areas with excess deaths including the following:

  • Overdose deaths
  • Gun-related deaths (accidents, suicides, and homicides)
  • Excess car deaths
  • Accidents (including increased deaths from fires and drowning)
  • Maternal deaths during childbirth
  • Deaths related to chronic disease including diabetes (associated with obesity)

My take: The excess number of U.S. population dying every year is staggering and sadly, little is being done to change it.