According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the life expectancy rate for the average American man has declined for the third year in a row, CBS reports.
In the report, the most recent data available is for the year 2017, where the average life expectancy rate is 76.1 years, a decrease from 76.5 years in 2014. The study reveals that one of the primary reasons for this is a rise in “deaths of despair,” including drug overdoses, suicide, and liver disease caused by alcoholism.
The report also revealed that such untimely deaths have doubled since 2007, from 14.9 deaths every 100,000 to 29.1 deaths every 100,000. This death rate “increased by an average of 18.5% per year among men aged 25-34 and by an average of 18.8% per year among men 35-44.”
The demographic most affected by this downward trend is “white, less-educated Americans.” This epidemic of suicide and drug overdoses among this demographic is widely seen as a response to the decline in manufacturing jobs in parts of America that were once the backbone of industrial society, and is one of the key voting blocs that secured President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016.