"But we still see very high mortality from drugs, very high mortality from suicide, infant mortality remains high and maternal mortality remains high. U.S. life expectancy fell in recent years because of a surge in drug overdoses and deaths from COVID-19. But life expectancy has been slowly inching back up since the pandemic ended in 2023 and drug overdoses began falling. "We're nowhere near the upper range for developed countries in the world in terms of life expectancy even at 79 years," Anderson says. Anderson says the 2025 life expectancy data look promising so far for further improvement, but it's too early to know for sure.