Life Expectancy in the United States

As a result of falling age-specific mortality, life expectancy rose dramatically in the United States over the past century. Preliminary data for 2003 show that life expectancy at birth for the total population has reached an all-time American high level, 77.6 years, up from 49.2 years at the turn of the 20th century. Record-high life expectancies were found for white males (75.4 years) and black males (69.2 years), as well as for white females (80.5 years) and black females (76.1 years). Life expectancy gaps between males and females and between whites and blacks persisted.