New York experienced the largest drop in life expectancy of any state in the nation in 2020, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Life expectancy for New York residents plunged from 80.7 in 2019 to 77.7 in 2020, according to the CDC’s new National Vital Statistics report released Tuesday.
Despite the drop, the Empire State ranked 15th in overall life expectancy, with Mississippi ranking the lowest nationwide at just 71.9 years of life expectancy in 2020.
At the top of the list is Hawaii, ranking at 80.7 years. With lower life expectancy across the board, the state was the only one to stand above the eight-decade mark.
Washington, Minnesota, California, and Massachusetts filled out the remainder of the top five states in the study. Across the board, females continued to outrank men in overall life expectancy.
In Hawaii, for example, males ranked at 77.6 years, with females at 83.8, a whopping six-year difference. Nationwide, the difference was 5.7 years more in life expectancy for women in 2020. Washington, D.C., revealed the greatest difference between female and male life expectancy, with women living an average of seven years longer in 2020.
Every state and the District of Columbia experienced lower life expectancy in 2020. COVID was attributed as the main cause for the decrease, along with “unintentional injuries” that included drug overdoses.
“We haven’t seen drops in life expectancy on this scale since World War II, and that’s the important point because people sometimes don’t think these numbers sound very big, especially when you’re talking about fractional decreases in life expectancy,” Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told BuzzFeed News. “But they’re actually representing large losses of life.”
Former New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo was heavily criticized for his response to the COVID pandemic. The state became known for its harsh coronavirus restrictions that included proof of vaccination for many activities, long-term school closures, and vaccine requirements for city workers, including first responders.
New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state is lifting its COVID restrictions for schools to align with updated CDC recommendations.
“No more quarantining — no more ‘test to stay,’” Hochul told reporters during a Manhattan news conference. “The days of sending an entire classroom home because one person was symptomatic or tested positive — those days are over.”
In addition to decreased life expectancy, New York has also become one of the top states people are leaving. Based on USPS change-of-address data in April, New York ranked second only to California among the states Americans are exiting, with over 75,000 families moving in 2021.