Older adults who reach the age of 65 in the United States will live an average of 19.4 years longer, according to a data brief recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The data are from 2015, the most recent year for which they were available.
For women, average life expectancy at age 65 was 20.6 years; men reaching 65 could expect to live an additional 18 years, on average, according to the brief. These numbers did not change from 2014, the NCHS said.
Also not changing from 2014 were the top 10 causes of death, which accounted for 74.2% of all deaths in the United States in 2015:
- Heart disease (23.4% of total deaths)
- Cancer (22%)
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases (5.7%)
- Unintentional injuries (5.4%)
- Stroke (5.2%)
- Alzheimer’s disease (4.1%)
- Diabetes (2.9%)
- Influenza and pneumonia (2.1%)
- Kidney disease (1.8%)
- Suicide (1.6%)
Although the list did not change from 2014 to 2015, the rates increased for all but one of the causes, cancer.
