Why is American Life Expectancy So Low? 

i am socked that you didn't mention the lack of affordable healthcare, and it's certainly the cause of the massive drop during the pandemic

As an American, I would like to add some additional points. The first is that most American have unhealthy diets and lifestyles. The design of cities and suburbs is such that most people must drive cars instead of walk for even routine errands such as buying basic groceries. (In fact, due to the way streets are designed and the increasingly-ubiquitous oversized pickups and SUV's, it can be downright dangerous to be a pedestrian in many towns.) In addition, the consumption of junk food and sugary drinks is off the charts, and the adult obesity rate now stands over 40%. I'm often shocked when I drive to the store and in the checkout lines there are morbidly obese parents with obese children buying multiple 3-liter bottles of soda and bags stuffed full of candy and other highly-processed food. There is simply no health discipline with many people. In addition to the unhealthy lifestyles, many Americans with no health insurance or insurance with a huge deductible choose not to seek medical care for a health problem until it becomes a full-blown crisis due to fear of medical bankruptcy.

Americans: Make healthcare too expensive too use. Eat like they have free healthcare. Drive everywhere, don't walk or exercise. Also Americans: Why are we dying young?

I taught overseas for much of my adult life. When I moved back to the US a few years ago, I realized two things even before I left the airport upon arrival: 1. We are very overweight 2. Our mass media is saturated with prescription drug advertisements. Is there a correlation between the two?

1) lack of affordable health care 2) 'food' that couldn't even be imported into the EU due to poor quality 3) poor education of the majority of the population, also when it comes to a healthy lifestyle

Cuisine: Unhealthy Car: Dependency Healthcare: Expensive and predatory Guns: Yes School shootings: Yes Hotel, Trivago.

The car dependcy of us city is definitely a big factor of why their life expectancy is like that

Opioid crisis and suicides. I graduated in 2012 from a very nice and peaceful little rural high school in northeast Ohio and of the 63 kids I’ve graduated with only 44 of us are still alive between overdoes, car accidents and suicides 😢

Notjustbikes made a great video about American cars, and how bad they are for safety. It's not the early driving age, it's the distance from the ground/low visibility, bad crumple zones and car centric design

As a Gen Xer I am keenly aware of this phenomenon. I’ve actually seen more deaths this year than for the entirety of the pandemic. Depression underlies many of the risky behaviors you mentioned. Also it was incredibly difficult to manage any chronic conditions during the pandemic.

the imapact of ke$ha on american society has been devistating

Error: at 1:50 you compare the life expectancy of the US in 2021 to that of the US of 2003, but you said UK. For the UK it wouldve been 1997.

I don’t think the USA car crashes are due to the licensing at a younger age, I think it would be better to consider that they drive to go everywhere and that the roads are easy to drive on because they are wider and more straight than in Europe. The issue with making driving easier is that can also create a false sense of security and cause you to stop focusing on the road.

1. Preventable diseases 2. Paywalls for everyone. Even the poor. 3. Strong dependence on cars 4. Conflict and bullying 5. Everyone is expected to solve everything themselves. Even if there's a lot working against them.

Some other factors are low access to cheap health care and healthy lifestyles. When I was in California, they were more concerned about how food could contain cancers but in Australia, we have a food rating system from 1 to 5 based on how healthy the food is, such as on cereals, drinks and fast foods. Plus, it is a common stereotype that most Americans have a lack of education and/or aren't educated to save themselves. This could be the major issue with drugs, gun violence and mental instabilities

I believe the term is "deaths of despair".

How could you forget the major problem? The majority of people do not have any medical insurance. This means that you have no way to go to the hospital because it costs thousands just to see doctors. No socialised healthcare means younger deaths. What does the UK have? Socialised healthcare.

It's surprising that the lack of affordable healthcare wasn't mentioned at all in this video

I don’t know how but you’ve managed to package an unbiased analysis that is more entertaining than the sensationalized segment of economic and financial news. Thank you for your efforts to be the signal and not the noise. I understand that the economy is currently in a downturn and that we must wait for things to get better

Unaffordable healthcare, legalisation of absurdly toxic chemicals for pesticides and food, increased poverty, car dependence,… I can keep going

I have to weigh in on this. My parents are about to be 84 and 80, shortly. They gave up the booze and cigarettes when they were younger and never did any illegal drugs that I know of. As I've gotten older, I'm shocked at the number of adults around my age, 60, that smoke, drink, and take several kinds of illegal substances, and no, I'm not complaining about marijuana, but some do that, too. My grandfathers lived into their 80s and my grandmothers both made it into their late 90s. What did they do? They kept up their friendships and family relationships until the end. Ate a fairly healthy diet, exercised, usually, got enough sleep, etc. Most of living longer isn't rocket science, contrary to what a lot of people seem to think. Work is important, too, but my younger sister has run herself into the ground through overwork.

Poor diet, poor education, poor healthcare. This, in what is supposed to be the most advanced, and richest country in the world?

My mother's cousin (a Canadian living in the US), was denied essential health care by her insurance company...

Obesity, guns, lack of social healthcare, substance abuse, stress take your pick...

Noam Chomsky praised the USSR for being an empire that starved itself for the sake of its sphere. The same can be said of the USA.

In Italia vivono 10 anni di più che in America. Alla fine è questo che conta. In Italia si mangia meglio, si vive meglio, si lavora meglio, e si vive di più . 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹

I think the main reasons are 1)High medical bills 2)Very Unhealthy diets 3)lack of workouts or walks and driving everywhere

That 14 driving age I believe is for farming equipment on like dirt roads, but for the most part the minimum driving age is still 16 for road with other cars on them and what not

No mention of obeisity and lack of universal health care. These have historically been the reasons for lagging

Hi, American here. From the blue parts, but not from any coast. So, keep in mind that US life expectancy tracks with economic and political orientation to a significant degree. It's really amazing how strongly it correlates. To be brief, if you are from a poorer, redder part of the country, this graph should scare the hell out of you. It is a combination of lack of healthcare and lack of jobs. These two things go hand in hand in the US - if you don't have a job, you don't have access to healthcare. The ACA barely began to address this problem. It makes it easier for a very, very small sliver of the population to get insurance by forcing insurance companies to carry anyone that applies. Prior to the ACA, if you had a preexisting condition (like...I dunno, pregnancy? Or hypertension?) good luck getting health care. Still, if you can't afford insurance, you will not have access to a doctor unless you can pay out of pocket. Good luck with that. A personal anecdote: Late last year, I went back to the country to a funeral for a close relative. He was barely 65 when he died - in other words, just old enough to retire in the USA. He very much fits into this demographic. His younger brother (61?) is currently on kidney dialysis and needs a transplant. I don't know what his life expectancy is, but it can't be great. As an American, I can tell you that at a national level, no one cares about these people. Not even the people whom they vote for like Lauren Boebert or MTG, and certainly not Trump. This is what got us Trump and what will fuel the rise of whoever comes next. It is no wonder things are the way they are in this country. The middle was hollowed out and now all that's left is a shell.

Everything in the US is full of sugar, even bread, people do not cook but eat pre-processed food, no one walks, everyone drives.

The US has a much higher suicide rate and has had a lot of issues with drugs. Canton Ohio was using meat trailers as mobile mortuaries. These typically have a larger effect on younger people and really bring down the average. When a quarter don't make it to 60, the average will suffer. The mode for deaths in the UK and US is around 87.

Anyone who’s experienced our health care and food systems know exactly why.

1:50 The graph would imply they regressed to 2003 US. And 1998 UK.

At 84 yrs, I guess I'm living on borrowed time.

Here is a word US Americans dont like to pronounce: healthcare.

Obese population, opioid crisis, gun violence, inaccessible healthcare, ... I can think of a few reasons

Extreme economic inequality has a lot to do with it. The lack of universal health care is one of the manifestations of this.

It can’t be understated how devastating the opioid epidemic has been in the US. As far as driving is concerned unfortunately there is very little that can be done there, transportation for living and working essentially necessitates a car, and there genuinely isn’t much that can be done about that. Sure in large cities public transit helps but anywhere outside of that a car is an absolute necessity.

America is divided into tiny postal units called zip codes. Studies on life expectancies have been performed using zip codes as the comparative factor between Americans. Some zip codes have life expectancies as high as 90 years old and others as low as 63.

died at school ,with aged under 16,it is too young for USA

loads of reasons: substandard quality food, for-profit healthcare system, arguably the world's biggest car culture, and very poor public transport or fitness facilities.

I do not agree the reason for the increased car deaths in the US is the low age requirement for driving. There is little evidence that young drivers are less capable or safe then older ones. The reasons are car centric road design, SUVs and pick-up trucks being too big and unsafe for pedestrians and the absence of proper infrastructure for alternative transportation

"The US has a relaxed approach to gun ownership" Understatement of the century?

Really surprised healthcare and drug prices aren't mentioned. The majority of people on insulin actually ration their doses because we're getting price gouged over here and has often lead to deaths that could have been prevented.

My great grandma died aged 98 and great grandpa 96. My grandma is 92 and other grandma is 88. But they live in Slovakia😂🫢

For everyone pointing to poor food, sedentary lifestyle, and car dependence, these are are long term factors that do not impact mortality in younger people. And it's deaths among the young that has pulled the US Life Expectancy.

Healthcare qualityis too costly in USA. Plus public education in the USA been tanking for long time

I think men's mental health has a lot to do with it, I've been through some therapy (private at £1 per minute!) , and lived with poor mental health for 12 years and it's only got worse, I know I should talk to people but my throat closes up when I try to speak, there's something in us conditioned not to ask or seek help and they can override our normal sensibilities. It's pretty lonely and difficult to fight on our own, suicide and drug overdose (drug taking to cope) reckless driving due to apathy, easy reach of guns (not UK specific) are just seen as options That's the point it's all irrational, but absolutely tragic

Suicide is a MUCH bigger factor than homicide. The top killer of young people in the US is firearms because of suicides, not homicides.

If you look at life expectancy by state or by region, you will understand the disparity better.

Drugs, guns, cars, poor self-care, and lack of healthcare access. That would explain the difference.

My last boss would often talk the talk re culture and workplace family etc., everyone matters and is important and so on. Then Covid struck, and he quickly showed his true colors; nothing but a greedy corporate. The workers were literally only there to make him and the shareholders more money, and if you weren't quite performing and didn't fir the mold of their ideal company, you either got laid off, managed out, or the goal posts were shifted so that your KPIs became ridiculously difficult to consistently achieve. I had been at that company 10+ yrs, and before then staff turnover was low. Since I left, staff turnover has gone thru the roof. It's not as though people have 'followed me', but I suspect people have cottoned on to the Shareholders 'game', in saying one thing but actually doing the complete opposite. So in my view, I suspect that there are likely many others out there who had a similar experience and that's just another part contributing to 'The Great Resignation'. Yes i do recognize that it's thr shareholders company, and if they're working in the company, they call thr shots over its direction, but when they say they care, then take all the actions which suggest they don't, it doesn't really matter how they spin it, people see that that BS, realise they're being screwed over, and then they leave.

I remember having a debate in class about this. My teacher said that if healthcare was free, then the quality would be lower. But in America, not only is healthcare expensive but the quality is getting lower.

While gun, road and opioid deaths are easily counted, they are probably not among the three leading factors that explain the US’s relatively low life expectancy. The top 3 are: 1. diet. Americans have bad eating habits, both in terms of nutritional value and quantity. 2. horrible healthcare system. While American doctors and Hospitals are excellent, most Americans do not have access to them due to the lack of universal healthcare. 3. lifestyle. Americans work too hard and are way too stressed. There needs to be better work-life balance.

Before the Healthcare, let's talk about preventative measures- food quality! Pesticides, hormones, antibiotics in meat. Overfarmed veggies with less vitamins and minerals. Overly processed food and high sugar

We eat more, we work more, we receive less vacation/time off, we don’t have universal healthcare so most don’t get preventive care or even go to the hospital at all, we chug down medication after medication…

you left out deaths of despair. Many Americans feel there is no hope for a good future due to economic, social and other reasons. This in turn leads to people not living as long

Why did you not mention cardio-metabolic disease at 4:08 ? Seems to me like it's quite important to acknoledge that this is an important part of the gap, and if you did look at it and found it was actually irrelevant / was not properly studied, then showing this information on screen and not talking about it is strange. Otherwise, good video I'd say :)

Many people have problems with eating junk food instead of natural food, obesity, drugs, alcohol and lack of exercise.

Getting shot in school doesn’t help

Because Mississippi and Alabama bring all our stats down. States like Hawaii is 82, California is 81 and New York is 81.

America is now surpassed by Albania, a poor country, Brunei, a sharia country and China, it's biggest rival. So much for a downturn

I think the biggest factor for the high number of driving deaths is the lack of public transport. If you can't get a bus or train then you'll be forced to drive more often, and people will be more likely to drive after drinking.

Guns, Food, Cars, Drugs and no healthcare for poor people.

Basicly drugs , violent crime and expensive health care 🫤

_and his nukes are plentiful_ I have never laughed at one of your videos 😂

You didn't mention the overall and nationwide health risks which are: - homelessness; 1 % of the entire population doesn't live in healthy homes. - prison; 1% of the adult population is in some form of custody. - obesity; 2/3 of all muricans are way too fat. - unhealthy food. Hormone beef, chlorinated chicken, and contaminated water; this all adds up. Given all this the question rises, why the average life expectancy isn't as low as in russia, where the situation (drugs, healthcare, violence, living conditions- and Standards) is similar in many areas. Well, there are still many people in their 90'ties and even hundreds, who were born around or after 1930. They didn't suffer from absolute poverty and malnutriton during their childhood or youth, didn't get spoiled by fast food after the 1970'ies, profited from good healthcare after retirement and now balance the numbers.

in this whole vid specifically about comparatively low life expectancy in US not a single point and single second was dedicated to actual explanation or to address the actual titular issue. theres been even shown comparison that like 20 yrs or so ago US and UK had almost identical life expectancy but since then they diverged significantly but then whole vid was dedicated to word to word reiterating series of graphs and stats and reading excerpts from news articles already shown on screen- like US had higher gun crime rates, higher road death stats, etc etc before, yet the average been still the same for US and UK, now there 2, 3, sometimes more years difference. why? thats the title of vid- why? and in the whole vid not a single just attempt at responding it or addressing it, just more stats merely describing current difference. thats the definition of clickbait, like whats even point of this vid that is all basically just text- to- speech conversion of few newspaper articles without single one original conclusion made by the creators to answer the why question they themselves put in the title?

Hundreds or thousands of children loosing their lives in school shootings certainly wouldn’t help with the situation. Nor would the fact that a large percentage of the population simply can’t afford healthcare. Sadly that’s a situation Australia is seemingly trying to emulate.

I wonder if there is an inverse correlation between military spending and life expectancy

Your report completely misunderstands what Life Expectancy is all about. In the 1850's life expectancy in the USA was about 40 years. It steadily rose till about the 1990's and then started to decline. What caused this advance in longevity ? It was Public Health. I am loosely defining that as policys which prevent you getting ill rather than curing you once you get ill. Over that time period many laws have been enacted and enforced that protect us in our interaction with our environment. They include laws on the water we drink, the air we breath, the food we eat, the houses we live in, the places we work, our places of entertainment, and lastly the roads we drive on. Ronald Reagan thought regulations need to be reduced. That is when the increase abated. Donald Trump got rid of more regulations than any other president in US history. The decline continues.

There's a correlation between inequality and lower life expectancy (as well as many other social problems). The neoliberal reforms of the 80's and 90's have seen many tax reductions, resulting in lower wealth redistribution, especially in the USA. There's a consensus that a supply-side policy like lowering taxes result in increased economic growth. As such, there seems to be a trade off between lower inequality and higher gdp growth. What do you think about this? What do you think of the proposed solution to lower corporate and income taxes while increasing consumption taxes (progressive consumption taxes?), to incentivise investment (strengthen the supply side) while still being able to redistribute wealth through the higher consumption taxes?

Two patients in the US (husband and wife) were treated for possible rabies with rabies vaccine -- the total cost was over $200,000. There is no place on Earth where rabies shots cost over $100K each. If you get injured in the outback and a rescue helicopter plucks you out that cost for that service alone can exceed $50K. The primary factor for declining lifespans in the USA is greed! Some years ago Republican's thwarted an effort to lower drug prices by making it illegal for the US government (Medicare) to get drug companies to compete. The idea was to allow the government to negotiate lower prices but that plan was killed and a law that prevents the government from negotiating lower prices was signed into law instead.

A better video would have been "Why is British life expectancy so low?" comparing it to that of Japan, which is 84.62 years as of 2020 according to the World Bank.

Im still confused about why Americans have so much money given their wage but still not able to afford healthcare. What have they done with their money?

Kinda hilarious that you didn't even mention the elephant in the room, that US healthcare is simply the worst in the western world 😂

Why are these all coming on the Global rather than US channel?

We’re here for a good time not a long time 🤷‍♂️

Healthcare, work culture and diet. They each make the other worse.

But once the counter-factuals are taken into account what explains the subsequent 2 year life expectancy gap? Healthcare?

It is because most of us are fat, deaths of despair are increasing, and we can't afford to go to the doctor.

Look it's stressful to live in US with everyone trying to take every bit of flesh Thay can. I mean my rent has gone up 150%in 10 years

These numbers really do not mean much as the numbers are in the high 70’s and many people in America live into their 80’s or 90’s. The major issue in America when it comes to health is eating habits and how the food is made. There are plenty of organic options, but it is more expensive and it is too difficult to eat right all the time especially when going to restaurants when taste is what matters. This all contributes to most Americans being overweight.

Its something called fast food.

I've travelled to 40 foreign countries & realized something, i.e. Americans work way too much & don't take enough time off from their jobs! Europeans take at least 4 to 6 weeks off a year to relax, travel, etc., while Americans are lucky to get 2 weeks off, with pay! This, plus working hundreds of hours of overtime, leads to excess stress & possible early deaths! Remember, you can't spend that heavily taxed, overtime money if you're dead!

Thicc life, slim life span 😇

Ameica is the only developed country on earth that dosn't provide free health care for its citizens.

China and Cuba have higher life expectancies.

I recall finnish liquorice candy is sold in american pharmacies as "blood pressure medicine", which just sounds crazy to me. Yes liquorice raises blood pressure but its still candy!

For comparison, the average US income is around double that of average UK income. American's earn slightly more than the Swiss and there's 330 million of them compared to just 8 million Swiss.

The only I have to disagree with is that are lawmakers are keen to raise the life expectancy here in the US. I just haven’t seen it.

Move to AUSTRALIA my American brothers and sisters 🤣🤣 life’s amazing 👍

US life expectancy is diminished by other factors not presented here, one of which is population density. Off the coasts and outside of major cities there are few people per square mile, which means rural Americans (46m people) generally lack quick access to a hospital. Another is the geographically uneven nature of healthcare services. University hospitals are exclusively found in big cities. Rural hospitals are small, understaffed, and not full-service. This increases the negative effects of other issues, such as poor diet, diabetes, and cardiac disease. Unlike other developed nations, America does not have a government-run universal access program, which means: 1) some low-income people can only get care in clinics and ERs; 2) no national mandate for rural healthcare. Countries with superior longevity generally have a national universal access program supplemented by private insurance. America has a patchwork of government-backed programs & laws (VA, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA) but relies on private insurance & hospitals to deliver care. America's 17 million military veterans receive care at government-owned VA hospitals. Unlike other developed nations, America's healthcare costs aren't constrained by government intervention. As a result, physicians are over-paid compared to the rest of the developed world, drugs cost on average 4x more than across the rest of the world, medical devices are outrageously priced, and individual hospitals are free to grossly over-charge for services provided. The healthcare "free market" is a myth. Large hospital networks, many of which are owned by the RCC, have many local monopolies. There is no true competition in America's hospital industry. People in other developed nations don't lose their life savings and even their homes due to medical expenses. America sees 530,000 annual medical bankruptcies. Every decade sees 4% of America's 131 million households lose everything because of medical bankruptcy. A 2009 study claimed that 62% of all personal bankruptcies are medically related. Roughly half of all medical bankruptcy filers have no other debt on their credit reports. The human cost extends past losing homes and life savings. Americans delay or avoid medical treatment because of costs, thus shortening national longevity. The problem falls heaviest on older people. National healthcare costs are approximately 9% of GDP across the developed world, excluding America, where healthcare accounts for 16% of GDP. America's national longevity is about the same as Ecuador's, a developing, middle-income country where 30% of the population is poor and national healthcare spending is 8% of GDP. Ecuador has a two-tier healthcare system that provides universal access, like Ireland, Singapore, Canada, Israel, the UK, Taiwan, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

I live in the U.S. and my state life expectancy is 80.4 years, while my town is 84.0 years. It seems to completely depend on where in the U.S. you live. The average is likely being brought down drastically by southern ideology states. You know, the ones that are currently banning books like it's the seventeenth century.

As an American I saw this headline and HEALTHCARE...WE DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE. The choice is DIE or a lifetime of harassment and debt

Watching this while eating McDonald’s lol

I have been a nurse for 3 years now. Our healthcare system is disgusting. I knew it was bad before, but seeing from the inside, it keeps me up at night. Healthcare is a for profit business in America. Theres no profit in permanently curing someone, or preventing expensive surgeries. Our food is the double edged sword to the issue. Top 3 most subsidized crops (by a large margin): Tobacco, Sugar, Corn (high fructose corn syrup) Our food and health agencies are corrupt and make decisions based on special interests over public wellbeing.

Low life expectancy as morbid as it sounds is actually a really good thing. Old population is not only useless but a burden on the country. Japan is stuck in limbo, because all of it's earnings go to elderly care. This increases the tax burden on the youth, which overworks them and thus less births. A viscous cycle with no end in sight due to the elderly living a long ultra healthy lifestyle. China and even more so Europe are rapidly approaching that same level. Ironically Russia's Alcoholism and America's unhealthy diet and drug use are a morbid blessing in disguise.

If you dive deeper into the US traffic death problem you will find out that the low driving age does not drive the high amount of traffic deaths. Main contributors are the Americans choice in cars, under-regulation for "light-trucks" (SUV, pick-ups and so on) and the way roads are build. I am living in Ohio which has high numbers of road deaths compared to other states. I thought this is a result of bad driving (the people are horrible drivers here), but at least nationwide, the number of serious car accident is not that much higher than in Europe. But they are more deadly! Far more deadly. And this is mostly due to light trucks. They are higher so that pedestrians are more likely to get UNDER the car instead of rolling over the car. These trucks are also not tested in safety evaluations against smaller cars, but one against cars of similar size.