Physical Health
The importance of our physical health may seem self-evident. We value living long and prosperous lives. We also cannot achieve our potential if we are sick or unsafe. Physical health is also intricately connected to mental health and other measures of psychological well-being.
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Life ExpectancyNational
Trend% of countries the US outperformsIntl. Rank
Trend62%Specific Measure:
The number of years today’s newborn children would live if subject to the mortality risks prevailing for the US population.
Measures in green indicate an improving national trend or that we are outperforming at least 80% of countries.
Measures in red indicate a declining national trend or that we are outperforming less than 50% of countries.
Measures in yellow indicate stable trends or that we are outperforming 50-79% of countries.
Summary of Results
Life expectancy, or the number of years we can expect to live, is the sole measure that the board agreed to include. (Suicides are related but are located in the Mental Health section.) Life expectancy was steadily improving for decades, even centuries, through 2014 but then, in almost unprecedented fashion, life expectancy actually declined. The main immediate causes behind this decline were drug overdoses and alcohol-related deaths among young people and the middle-aged, especially men. It is also increasingly recognized that adult physical health and life expectancy are shaped by the environment and experiences in early childhood. This decline in life expectancy began prior to the COVID pandemic, which produced an additional, though brief, decline. Life expectancy has since bounced back and is once again at an all-time high, though we remain in the middle of the pack of higher-income countries globally.
Related Topics
Life expectancy is partly rooted in our experiences when we are growing up, such as low birthweight (see the Children and Families section) and poverty (see the Inequality section). Another cause of lower life expectancy is social isolation (see the Life Satisfaction section).
Other Measures Considered
The board also considered, but did not include, other measures, including body mass index (BMI), physical disability rate, and a more subjective measure of self-reported general health. The public did not support any of these additional measures either, although the general health measure received the most support (67%).