US life expectancy at birth increased to its highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, bolstered by a decrease in drug overdose deaths, according to new reports.
The US population's death rate decreased by 6% in 2023 from 2022, resulting in life expectancy at birth increasing to 78.4 years from 77.5 years, a report published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics shows. Meanwhile, overdose death rates fell 4% in 2023 from a year earlier, according to a different report.