U.S. Citizens Living Longer

With all the talk about obesity and the very real health issues that stem from it, life expectancy rates in the United States are still at an all-time high, according to a recent study. The finding reflects a trend of increasing life expectancy that began in 1955, when the average American lived to be 69.6 years old, according to Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2005, a report prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics. By 1995, life expectancy was 75.8 years, and by 2005 (the most recent data) it had risen to 77.9 years.