For Americans age 75 to 84, the mortality rate improved by 2.3 percent between 2015 and 2016, or twice the rate of improvement seen between 2011 and 2016.
For those older than 85, mortality improved by 2.1 percent, or more than three times the rate of improvement between 2011 and 2016, according to new analysis from the Society of Actuaries.
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Older Americans experienced increases in longevity that were greater than all other age segments, some of which saw dramatically increased death rates. For instance, those 25 to 34 saw a 10.5 increase in mortality rates in 2016, the highest of all age segments.
The overall mortality rate for all ages and both genders decreased in 2016 by 0.6 percent. Generally, a decrease in mortality rates translates to an increase in life expectancy.
But 2016 proved to be an anomaly to that correlation. While overall mortality decreased, the average life expectancy did too, by 0.1 years. The SOA attributes the anomaly to the higher death rates among younger and middle age Americans.
SOA's analysis is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control.
"The new data will definitely be a starting point for the Society of Actuaries to study and construct an update to our annual mortality improvement scale and model," said Dale Hall, managing director of research for the SOA, in an email.
Hall said SOA is scheduled to release and annual update to its mortality tables in the fall of 2018. Along with the new CDC data, SOA will examine data from the Center for Medicaid Services.
While the overall mortality rate improved in 2016, the increase in life expectancy has slowed in the last five years relative to the annual average improvement from 1999 to 2016, which was 1.1 percent.
Mortality rates improved every year from 1999 to 2015.
Heart disease, the number one cause of death among Americans, has been a "very large contributor" to the slowdown in mortality improvements since the late 2000s, when the longevity rates were increasing at historic rates.
The increasing death rate among younger Americans is attributed to a spike in accidental deaths, which has been impacted by the opioid epidemic, SOA said in its report.
Cause of death by opioid overdose increased 24.7 percent in 2016, the highest rate of increase for all causes of death.
Opioid related deaths accounted for a quarter of all accidental deaths. The age groups between 14 and 44 saw the greatest increases in opioid and other accidental deaths.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
