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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta. (Dreamstime/TNS)

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(Tribune News Service) — Life expectancy dropped in 2020 by nearly two years across the United States — mostly due to COVID-19 and drug overdoses, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics on Tuesday released its annual report looking at mortality in the U.S. The report analyzed death data in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) for 2020, the last year for which data is available.

Results found that from 2019 to 2020, life expectancy in the nation declined from 0.2 to three years across all states and D.C.

Overall, life expectancy in the U.S. in 2020 was 77 years — a decline of 1.8 years from 2019.

The states with the greatest decreases include those in the Southwest and U.S.-Mexico border area — Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas — as well as Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, as well as D.C.

The lowest decline in life expectancy was registered in nearly all New England states, except for Connecticut, as well as Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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