Recent Insights into the U.S. Life Expectancy Stagnation with an Eye Toward the Future
In 2024, U.S. life expectancy fully rebounded to its pre-COVID pandemic level. What does this mean for our life expectancy trends going forward? This talk will cover evidence on the causes behind the pre-COVID U.S. life expectancy stagnation including an overview of trends in underlying causes of death and heterogeneity across place. It will address the recent post-COVID pandemic rebound in life expectancy, and what the data as a whole suggest for the direction of U.S. life expectancy moving forward.
Neil Mehta studies the health and functioning of older adults, with a particular focus on cardiometabolic disease and mortality trends. He currently leads an international team investigating why gains in U.S. life expectancy have stalled, seeking to identify the behavioral, medical, and social forces behind this trend. His prior work has advanced understanding of the effects of obesity on disability and mortality, the sources of socioeconomic differences in mortality, and patterns of health among foreign-born populations in the United States and Europe.
