LEST WE EVER FORGET:

Life Expectancy in U.S. Reaches a Record High (Rob Stein, March 15, 2003, Washington Post)

Although the nation's life expectancy reached an all-time high in 2001, the Sept. 11 attacks caused a sharp rise in the homicide rate, countering a decade-long trend, federal officials reported yesterday.

The lifespan for Americans rose from 77 years in 2000 to 77.2 in 2001, continuing a long-term trend of Americans living longer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The increase was for both men and women and for both whites and blacks. For men, life expectancy increased from 74.3 years in 2000 to 74.4 years in 2001. For women, it increased from 79.7 years to 79.8. For whites overall, the increase was one-tenth of a year, to 77.7 years in 2001; for blacks, it was three-tenths of a year, to 72.2.

At the same time, the age-adjusted death rate hit an all-time low, dropping from 869 deaths per 100,000 people in 2000 to 855 in 2001, according to an annual report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

The number of homicides, however, which had been decreasing steadily, jumped 17 percent between 2000 and 2001 -- up from 16,765 to 19,727, according to Robert N. Anderson, a statistician.

But the increase was almost entirely the result of the 2,953 homicides that the CDC officially attributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. If those deaths are subtracted, the age-adjusted homicide rate dropped from 5.9 per 100,000 in 2000 to 5.8 per 100,000 in 2002, officials said.

As a result, the CDC created a new subcategory for homicide -- deaths from terrorism -- so officials could monitor the homicide rate separately, Anderson said.

Every time 9-11 recedes to the back of your mind, even just a little bit, there's something like this to bring it back to the forefront and restoke your fury. Good. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2003 1:51 PM