Washington D.C., Dec 1, 2018 / 02:28 am
The suicide rate in the United States is at its highest in at least 50 years, and is contributing to a decrease in the nation's life expectancy, the federal government said Thursday.
Life expectancy for the U.S. population declined to 78.6 in 2017, down from 78.7 the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new report.
"Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation's overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable," said CDC director Robert Redfield in a Nov. 29 statement.
The United States saw more than 47,000 suicides in 2017, an increase of more than 2,000 from the previous year.