Nearly 15 Years Separate the Longest and Shortest Living US Groups in New Federal Life Expectancy Tables

Federal statisticians released the complete United States life tables for 2024 this week, and the detailed breakdown shows a gap of nearly 15 years between the longest-living and shortest-living population groups in the country. The Asian non-Hispanic population had a life expectancy at birth of 85.8 years. The American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic population had a life expectancy of 71.1 years.The headline national number, 79.0 years, was published earlier this year. What is new in the complete life tables released by the National Center for Health Statistics is the full picture underneath the average: survival probabilities at every age, expected years remaining at 65 and beyond, and an accounting of which causes of death drove the gains and which held them back.That detail matters for ordinary planning. It tells a 65-year-old roughly how many years of health spending, caregiving, and retirement income to plan for.