Life Spans Expanding in the U.S.

ATLANTA -- U.S. life expectancy has risen to a new high, now standing at nearly 78 years, the government said.

The increase is mainly a result of falling death rates in nearly all the leading causes of death. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2007 is nearly three months greater than for children born in 2006.

The new data are in a preliminary report based on about 90 percent of the death certificates collected in 2007. It comes from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. life expectancy has grown nearly 1 1/2 years in the last decade.

The U.S. trails about 30 other countries in estimated life span. Japan has the longest life expectancy -- 83 years for children born in 2007, according to the World Health Organization.

The CDC report found that the number of deaths and the overall death rate dropped from 2006 -- to about 760 deaths per 100,000 people from about 776. The death rate has fallen for eight straight years and is half of what it was 60 years ago.

Heart disease and cancer together are the cause of nearly half of all U.S. deaths. The death rate from heart disease dropped nearly 5 percent in 2007, and the cancer death rate fell nearly 2 percent, the report states.

The HIV death rate fell 10 percent, the biggest decline in 10 years.

The diabetes death rate fell about 4 percent, allowing 2003(unknown)Alzheimer's disease to surpass it to become the sixth- leading cause of death. Alzheimer's has been climbing in recent years, although that might be partly because declines in other causes are enabling more people to live long enough to die from Alzheimer's.