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

WASHINGTON — Life expectancy in Washington dipped in 2020 to 79.2 years, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, but the Evergreen State still ranks near the top of the nation, even after thousands died from COVID-19 complications.

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. The pandemic is behind the largest spike in mortality in 100 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Washington, 3,096 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, 13,886 Washingtonians have died of coronavirus infections.

Overall, Washington ranks second in life expectancy at birth, trailing only Hawaii. At 65 years old, the average Washington man will live another 18.2 years, and the average woman will live another 20.6 years, according to the CDC. For people in that age range, the Evergreen State has the nation's fourth-highest life expectancy.

In eight states — New York, Louisiana, New Jersey, Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, Illinois and Texas — and the District of Columbia, life expectancy fell by more than two years in 2020. In New York, life expectancy was cut by three 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 were 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.