Life expectancy reaches high of 76.9 years

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Life expectancy reaches high of 76.9 years



Preliminary data from the 2000 Census reveals that life expectancy at birth in the U.S. has risen to an all-time high of 76.9 years, according to information provided by the Lane County Extension Service.



Life expectancy for males is 74.1 years and for females 79.5 years. The gap, now 5.4 years, has been decreasing since 1990.

Infant mortality rates dropped to their lowest point: 6.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. This change was due mostly to a 4.1-percent decline in the mortality rate for African-American infants. Age-adjusted death rates continue to be substantially higher for the black population than for the white non-Hispanic population.



Leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2000 were in order: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease, kidney diseases, septicemia, suicide, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, hypertension pneumonia resulting from aspirating material into the lungs, and homicide.

Rates were down for many leading causes of death. While heart disease has been steadily decreasing since 1950, heart disease and cancer accounted for more than half of all deaths in the U.S. in 2000. Cancer mortality has decreased only since 1990.



Hawaii has the lowest-age adjusted death rates and Mississippi the highest. Thirty-two states have higher age-adjusted death rates than Oregon, which ranks below the national average.