Life Expectancy Drops in California Post-Covid
Economist Hannes Schwandt studies the relationships between health, wealth, and overall well- being.
California has not rebounded to pre-pandemic life expectancy, based on early data obtained from the state, according to new research published in the medical journal JAMA Open.
The analysis, coauthored by Hannes Schwandt, associate professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, examined how California life expectancy varied by year, income, race and ethnicity, and contributing causes of death.
American life expectancy has been falling behind other developed countries since 1990. It plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic and increased in 2022-2023. Although estimates for 2024 have not been reported for the U.S., data through 2024 are available for California.
The researchers found that life expectancy overall in California has decreased sharply since 2019, with a deficit of .86 years remaining in 2024 relative to 2019.
“Usually, we expect a quick rebound after the temporal shocks of an event like a pandemic," said Schwandt, who is also associate director at Feinberg’s Buehler Center and fellow at the Institute of Policy Research. "Mortality is much lower in the years following, so life expectancy should be higher. The fact that four years after the pandemic we still see a deficit compared to 2019 is quite concerning.”
An economist who studies the relationships between health, wealth, and overall well-being, Schwandt is known for spotlighting important societal trends. He has examined everything from the impact of air pollution on fetal development to the mental health effects of school shootings and the effects of unemployment on fertility. In 2022, he identified a pandemic baby bump.
His latest study is titled “The Failure of Life Expectancy to Fully Rebound to Prepandemic Levels.” In addition to Schwandt, co-authors of the study include Janet Currie of Princeton University; Till von Wachter and Jonathan Kowarski of University of California Los Angeles; and Steven H. Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
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