It’s a Wonderful Life… Sort Of.

    It’s been rising for decades, but life expectancy in the U.S. actually declined last year.

    FOX’s Jane Metzler reports: 

    An American born in 2015 can expect to live 78 years 9 1/5 months, not only is that down from the year before, it’s what it was four years ago, the decline twice as bad for men than women.

    Unlike the last two times U.S. life expectancy declined. 1993 in the middle of the AIDS epidemic and 1980 when a killer flu hit the country.

    No major outbreaks last year, but fatalities from eight of the 10 leading causes of death increased: heart disease, the number one killer, saw a nearly one percent increase. Suicide deaths up more than two percent, up three percent deaths from strokes.

    Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease jumped nearly 16 percent.

    One bright spot, cancer deaths went down by 1.7 percent.

    Jane Metzler, FOX News.

    Follow Jane Metzler on Twitter: @JaneMetzler