Americans Are Not Getting Older as Life Expectancy Stagnates

Americans are not getting any older, literally. Life expectancy in the United States has stagnated and falls behind several other countries, in several cases by five years or more.
 
Life expectancy has greatly increased in modern times thanks to advances in medical technology, better health care and better sanitation. Since 1930 Americans have gained two decades of life but those increases happened early on in the century. Since that early spike in life expectancy, gains have been modest at best. Not only are Americans not living longer, economic status has a large impact on how long a person will live.
 
The study was led by Justin Denney, PhD, assistant professor of sociology at Rice University. Researchers collected data from the Human Mortality Database for 1930-2000 to predict future life expectancy in 2055. Based on this research, not only has life expectancy stagnated in America, it trails several developed countries.