ATLANTA (AP) — The government says life expectancy in the U.S. has risen to a new high. It now stands at nearly 78 years.
The increase is due mainly to falling death rates in almost 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 U.S. data released Wednesday is 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 one and a half years in the past decade.
