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The average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by nearly two years in 2020, down to 77 years from 78.8 in 2019. It was the country’s lowest average in nearly two decades.
A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics looks at how that decline varied from state to state. It found that eight states and Washington, D.C., saw life expectancy fall by more than two years from 2019 to 2020. That list includes New Jersey, Texas and Louisiana.
New York saw the sharpest decline: a drop of three years. Hawaii saw the smallest, at just 0.2 years.
Mississippi had the lowest life expectancy in 2020 of any state (71.9 years), while Hawaii had the highest (80.7 years).
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