NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. life expectancy rose to 79 years in 2024 — the highest mark in American history. “It’s pretty much good news all the way around,” said Robert Anderson, of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the 2024 data on Thursday. Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population’s health, is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. In 2021, life expectancy fell to just under 76 1/2 years.