Life Expectancy In Connecticut Decreased In 2020 With COVID-19 Deaths

CONNECTICUT — Life expectancy in Connecticut declined by 1.9 years in 2020 to 78.4 years, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Nationally, life expectancy dropped to 77 years in 2020, down from 78.8 in 2019. No state saw an increase in life expectancy in 2020.

COVID-19 is behind the largest spike in mortality in 100 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Connecticut, 5,595 people died of COVID-19 illnesses in 2020, according to a U.S. News & World Report database. From the beginning of the pandemic to now, 11,034 in the Nutmeg State have died of coronavirus infections.

In most states, life expectancy varies based on sex, with longer life expectancies for women. In Connecticut, the difference in life expectancy at birth for males and females is 5.7 years.

At age 65, men in Connecticut have a life expectancy of 17.6 years, while women have an expectancy of 20.2 years.

Several states saw life expectancy decrease by less than a year, including Hawaii, where COVID-19 shaved only two months off a person's life. Other states in that group were New Hampshire (four months), Maine (five months), and Washington and Oregon (both eight months).

The states with the highest life expectancy in 2020 are Hawaii (80.7 years), Washington (79.2 years), Minnesota (79.1 years), and California, Massachusetts and New Hampshire (79 years).

The states with the lowest life expectancy in 2020 are from Southern states, including Mississippi (71.9 years), West Virginia (72.8 years), Louisiana (73.1 years), Alabama (73.2 years) and Kentucky (73.5 years).

Dr. Robert Anderson, the chief of mortality statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics, told NBC News the trend could continue when the 2021 report is issued, because COVID-19 deaths continued to increase that year.

“We really haven’t really seen anything like this since the 1918 flu pandemic,” he told the network.

After the flu outbreak, the average life expectancy fell from 50.9 years in 1917 to 39.1 years in 1918, he said.