据美联社8月31日报道，美疾控中心公布的最新报告显示，2021年美国人均预期寿命为76岁1个月，连续第二年出现下降，新冠疫情成为导致美国2021年人均预期寿命缩短的首要原因。

 

US life expectancy¹ dropped for the second consecutive² year in 2021, falling by nearly a year from 2020, according to a government report being released Wednesday.

8月31日美国官方发布的一份报告显示，2021年美国人均预期寿命连续第二年下降，较2020年缩短了近一年。

 

In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American lifespan has shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decrease happened in the early 1940s, during the height of World War II.

在新冠疫情暴发后的前两年，美国人均预期寿命缩短了近三年。上一次类似的下降发生在20世纪40年代初，即第二次世界大战高潮时期。

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials blamed COVID-19 for about half the decline in 2021, a year when vaccinations⁴ became widely available but new coronavirus variants⁵ caused waves of hospitalizations and deaths. Other contributors to the decline are longstanding problems: drug overdoses, heart disease, suicide and chronic⁶ liver disease.

美国疾病控制与预防中心官员将2021年美国人均预期寿命缩短的一半原因归咎于新冠疫情。2021年疫苗接种已广泛普及，但新变异毒株导致大批感染者住院或死亡。导致美国人均预期寿命缩短的其他原因是长期存在的问题：药物滥用、心脏病、自杀和慢性肝病。

 

"It's a dismal⁷ situation. It was bad before and it's gotten worse," said Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer⁸.

宾夕法尼亚大学人口统计学家塞缪尔·普雷斯顿说：“这个情况令人沮丧。以前的情况很糟糕，现在更糟。”

 

Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. It is "the most fundamental indicator⁹ of population health in this country," said Robert Hummer, a University of North Carolina researcher focused on population health patterns.

人均预期寿命是根据某一年的死亡率对当年出生的婴儿的平均寿命的预测。北卡罗来纳大学研究人口健康模式的罗伯特·哈默说，这是“美国人口健康的最基本指标”。

 

US life expectancy rose for decades, but progress stalled before the pandemic.

几十年来，美国的人均预期寿命保持增长，但疫情前开始下降。

 

It was 78 years, 10 months in 2019. In 2020, it dropped to 77 years. Last year, it fell to about 76 years, 1 month.

2019年美国的人均预期寿命为78年10个月，2020年降至77年。2021年，下降到了76年零1个月。

 

The last time it was that low was in 1996.

与1996年的美国人均预期寿命相同。

 

Declines during the pandemic were worse for some racial groups, and some gaps widened. For example, life expectancy for American Indian and Alaskan Native people saw a decline of more than 6 1/2 years since the pandemic began, and is at 65 years. In the same span, life expectancy for Asian Americans dropped by about two years, and stands at 83 1/2.

新冠疫情期间，美国某些种族群体的人均预期寿命缩短更多，一些差距被拉大。例如，自疫情暴发以来，美国印第安人和阿拉斯加土著人的预期寿命缩短了6.5年以上，达到65岁。在同一时期，亚裔美国人的预期寿命下降了约两年，为83.5岁。

 

Experts say there are many possible reasons for such differences, including lack of access to quality health care, lower vaccination³ rates, and a greater share of the population in lower-paying jobs that required them to keep working when the pandemic was at its worst.

专家表示，可能造成这种差异的原因有很多，包括缺乏高质量的医疗服务、疫苗接种率较低，以及在疫情最严重的时候，更多从事低薪工作的人需要坚持工作。

 

But it's likely the declines in 2020 and 2021 will stand as the first two consecutive years of declining life expectancy in the US since the early 1960s, CDC officials said.

但美疾控中心官员表示，2020和2021的预期寿命下降可能是自20世纪60年代初以来美国预期寿命首次出现连续两年下降的情况。

 

Findings in the report:

调查结果：

 

—Life expectancy for women in the United States dropped about 10 months, from just under 80 years in 2020 to slightly more than 79 in 2021. Life expectancy for men dropped a full year, from about 74 years to 73.

-美国女性的预期寿命下降了约10个月，从2020年的不到80岁降至2021的79岁多一点。男性的预期寿命整整下降了一年，从约74岁降至73岁。

 

—COVID-19 deaths were the main reason for the decline. The second largest contributor was deaths from accidental injuries — primarily from drug overdoses, which killed a record-breaking 107,000 Americans last year.

-新冠疫情是美国人均预期寿命下降的主要原因。第二大致死原因是意外伤害，其中以药物滥用为主。2021年有107000名美国人死于意外伤害，创历史新高。

 

—White people saw the second biggest drop among racial and ethnic¹⁰ groups, with life expectancy falling one year, to about 76 years, 5 months. Black Americans had the third largest decline, falling more than eight months, to 70 years, 10 months

-美国白人的预期寿命下降了一年，降至76岁零5个月，下降幅度排在第二。美国黑人的预期寿命下降幅度排在第三，下降了8个多月，降至70岁10个月。

 

—Hispanic Americans had seen a huge drop in life expectancy in 2020 — four years. But in 2021, life expectancy for them dropped by about two months, to about 77 years, 7 months.

-西班牙裔美国人的预期寿命在2020年大幅缩短4年，而在2021年缩短了约两个月，降至约77岁7个月。

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