Does Life Expectancy Matter?

U.S. life expectancy declined in 2015 for the first time in more than two decades, according to a National Center for Health Statistics study released last week. The decline of 0.1 percent was ever so slight â?? life expectancy at birth was 78.8 years in 2015, compared with 78.9 years in 2014. However, this reversal of a long-time upward trend makes these results significant.