CNN —

Humans are living 20 years longer than they were in 1950, according to new research with all 204 countries and territories studied reporting declines in their mortality rates since then. But vast inequities remain, and there is an "emerging crisis" of rising death rates among adolescents and young adults.

In 2023, life expectancy was 76.3 years for women and 71.5 years for men, according to analyses published Sunday in the journal The Lancet by the University of Washington School of Medicine's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) – returning to pre-pandemic levels after falling during the height of COVID.

COVID-19 fell from the leading cause of death in 2021 to 20th place in 2023, with heart disease and stroke rising to again become the leading causes of death

See Full Page