The increase in life expectancy represents a continuation of a long-running trend in the US. Over the past decade, life expectancy has increased from 75.8 years in 1995, up from 69.6 years in 1955. “This report highlights the continued reduction in deaths from the three leading killers in the United States, heart disease, cancer and stroke, which is most likely due to better prevention efforts and medical advances in the treatments of these diseases,” said a survey statistician with CDC′s National Center for Health Statistics and one of the report′s authors.

“If death rates from certain leading causes of death continue to decline, we should continue to see improvements in life expectancy.”Preliminary figures also indicate an increase in the U.S. infant mortality rate from 6.79 per 1,000 live births in 2004 to 6.89 in 2005. However, this increase is not considered statistically significant. Congenital malformations, or birth defects, were the leading cause of infant mortality in 2005, followed by disorders related to preterm birth and low birthweight. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was the third leading cause of infant death in the United States. The full report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/. Final U.S. mortality data for 2005 will not be available until next year.