US life expectancy will plummet to 66th in the world by 2050 on the basis of current trends, according to new research.
A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet forecasted life expectancy for Americans between 2022 and 2050, taking into account the impact of over 350 different kinds of disease and health condition,
Although US life expectancy is predicted to increase from 78.3 years in 2022 to 79.9 years in 2035 and 80.4 years in 2050, the increase expected to be “modest compared with that in other countries around the world.”
America’s global ranking in life expectancy will drop from 49th in the world in 2022 to 66th in 2050, out of a total of 204 nations and territories.
What’s more, the health-adjusted life expectancy—a measure of how many years a person can expect to live in good health, rather than just living—is expected to fall significantly.
Women’s are expected to be affected disproportionately, as the US falls from 54th in the world to 71st for female life expectancy.
“These lower rankings put the U.S. below nearly all high-income and some middle-income countries,” the researchers behind the study said.
Rising obesity rates are a “serious risk factor to many chronic diseases and forecasted to leap to levels never before seen,” Professor Christopher Murray said.
“The rise in obesity and overweight rates in the U.S., with IHME forecasting over 260 million people affected by 2050, signals a public health crisis of unimaginable scale.”
The researchers estimated that if authorities succeeded in eliminating risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar by 2050, the United States would be able to prevent the deaths of 12.4 million individuals.
Longtime health campaigner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been tasked to “Make America Healthy Again” as head of Health and Human Services under the incoming Trump administration.
He has identified a wide variety of targets for reform in order to address America’s chronic-health crisis, including the water supply, the national vaccine schedule, pollution of the environment with toxic chemicals, processed food and regulatory corruption.