As US Population Increases, So Does Life Expectancy

Break out the balloons and confetti. The nation's population reached a new milestone Tuesday -- 300 million -- according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If the idea of living in an increasingly crowded country doesn't put you in a celebratory mood, consider this: The dramatic rise in population over the last century has been accompanied by an even more phenomenal rise in life expectancy. When the U.S. population reached 100 million in 1915, the average lifespan was 54 years. When we hit 200 million in 1967, it was around 70. Today, the average lifespan of someone living in the U.S. is just months shy of 78, and there is little reason to think that we won't continue to push the life expectancy envelope. "Life expectancy worldwide has been rising pretty steadily since 1840, at a rate of about two years per decade," Daniel Perry, who is executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, tells WebMD.

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