US life expectancy surpasses 78 years for first time

In case you haven’t noticed, life expectancy is growing. According to the US National Center for Health Statistics, “Life expectancy at birth hit a new record high in 2006 of 78.1 years, a 0.3 increase from 2005.” Here is their press release. AP also did a story on it, which can be found here.

The other interesting thing was that there were 22,117 fewer deaths in 2006. With an aging population, it is odd to see the number of deaths declining. The NCHS says it is probably “the result of more mild influenza mortality in 2006 compared with 2005.”