An updated chart collection examines how life expectancy in the U.S. compares to that of other similarly large and wealthy countries, both during the COVID-19 pandemic and over the past few decades. It also compares the U.S. and its peers by healthcare spending.

The analysis shows that the U.S. lost nearly two decades of progress in life expectancy between 2004 and 2022. Life expectancy in the U.S. and peer countries generally increased from 1980 to 2019, but decreased in most countries in 2020 due to COVID-19. Between 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2022, life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by 1.3 years, compared to an average decline of 0.5 years in peer countries. This chart collection uses estimated or provisional data to compare the U.S. to comparable countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

These and other analyses can be found on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.