US Demographic Trends: Life Expectancy Declines

In the United States, for the 2008 year, the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention National Center for Health Statistics reports that life expectancy fell by one-tenth of a year (a little over a month) for both men and women.   Heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death, still accounted for nearly half (48%) of all deaths in 2008.  Notably, Alzheimer’s Disease rose to become the sixth leading cause of death. It rose a marked 7.5% to reach an age-adjusted rate of 24.4 per 100,000 in 2008. Stroke now stands as the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, down from the third place ranking it has held for decades.  Age-adjusted death rates from stroke declined 3.8% between 2007 and 2008.  Overall, there were 2,473,018 deaths in the United States in 2008 -- 49,306 more deaths than the 2007 total. The age-adjusted death rate for the U.S. population fell to 758.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2008, compared to the 2007 rate of 760.2.