Guns, Drugs, & Suicide lower life expectency over previous year

Drugs, especially opiods, contributed to the surge in death rates in recent years
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2015 saw roughly 86,000 more deaths than 2014 in the USA

Standard life expectancy at birth dropped to 78.8 years from 78.9 just a year earlier. Preliminary analysis suggests the increase in deaths may have been driven by drug overdoses and an unusually severe flu season in early 2015, which may have exacerbated potentially fatal conditions such as heart disease.

The number of people who died in car crashes was 37,757, which was also an increase of 12 percent.

Gun deaths, including homicides and suicides, totaled 36,252 which was also up 7 percent.

Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults.