Understanding Changes in Life Expectancy
According to a Stanford Center on Longevity study, Americans who turned 65 in 2016 were predicted to live 19.4 more years on average. Compare this to the fact that in 1950, most Americans lived an average of only 13.9 years after they turned 65.
That impressive increase of nearly six years—about a 40 percent increase—is especially significant on a population-wide scale. But what can this widespread increase in life expectancy be attributed to?
Healthcare Advancements
Modern medicine has made staggering progress over the last century, and even in the last few decades. Some of the improvements that have increased life expectancy include:
- Decreased infant mortality rates
- Development of new medications (such as antibiotics!) and vaccines
- Safer and more advanced surgical procedures
- Evidence-based preventive medicine (such as screenings)
- More widespread access to medical care
Better Nutrition
Unsurprisingly, eating a healthy diet can increase your lifespan by more than a decade, which is why improved nutrition has increased lifespans. Although obesity rates have increased, the fact that most Americans have more consistent access to food and are less likely to experience malnutrition is a net positive for overall health.
Improved Living Conditions
Before there was widespread access to clean water and sanitation in the US, people died from preventable diseases significantly more often. For instance, contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation led to the spread of diseases like cholera, which ended many lives early (and continues to do so in places where people lack these basic necessities). Living in healthier environments has significantly contributed to longer lives for many Americans.
The Impact on Life Insurance
Naturally, as we’ve been living longer lives on a population-wide scale, the life insurance industry has had to adapt. Here’s what’s changed:
Fewer People are Covered
Since the 1960s, there has been a significant decline in the number of people covered by life insurance. According to one in-depth study, from 1989 to 2013 alone, the percentage of households with any life insurance decreased from 77 percent to 60 percent. (Since then, it’s dropped even further to 52 percent in 2023.) They write that “the large increase in life expectancy between 1989 and 2013 is likely to play a prominent role in explaining the decline in life insurance ownership over this period.”
Retirement Planning
As we live longer, we need to put more thought into our retirement planning. After all, the longer you live, the longer your retirement savings will need to last and pay for all your living expenses. Thus, life insurance (particularly an indexed universal life insurance policy) can provide additional financial stability in retirement with cash value growth, tax advantages, and death benefits for your beneficiaries.
Underwriting Practices
Simplified underwriting is significantly more common than it used to be. In the past, life insurance companies required long questionnaires, third-party corroboration, medical exams, and more—adding up to an underwriting process that often took a grueling 45 to 60 days.
But to persuade more consumers to consider life insurance, many insurers have abandoned this intensive process in favor of a simpler one that is significantly more appealing to potential customers (in one survey, about half of Americans stated that they would seek out life insurance coverage if it used simplified rather than traditional underwriting practices).
Developments in AI and Big Data also promise to transform underwriting, potentially lowering the cost of life insurance and making these products more appealing to Americans who currently lack coverage.
Changing Trends in Longevity
Technological shifts as well as the health improvements described above have led to major shifts in the field of longevity. These are three of the most significant trends:
Genomic Medicine
In recent years, genomic medicine has become increasingly widespread as the field continues to progress rapidly. As the name suggests, genomic medicine involves using information about someone’s genetics to make decisions about their medical care. It has been particularly significant for cancer screenings (testing for certain genes associated with cancer) and for pharmacology (since your genes can influence how you respond to medications).
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
AI has been a major trend in virtually every sector, and that includes the field of longevity research. For instance, AI is contributing to scientific research on human longevity using large and genomic biomedical datasets. Similarly, a 2023 paper on this topic discusses in detail how AI could be used in computational systems biology and aging research.
In addition, based on a survey of 25 experts from industry and academia, the MIT AgeLab estimates that AI will play a significant role in facilitating longevity and financial planning. AI shows an enormous amount of promise and potential as researchers work to further extend human lifespans.
Focus on Wellness: Lifespan vs. Healthspan
Recent years have seen an increasing focus on healthspan rather than lifespan in the longevity field. Healthspan refers to the period of life during which one is healthy, or free from severe/disabling illness and disease.
This shift has occurred thanks to increasing recognition that extending our lifespans is hardly worth it if we can’t extend our health spans. For many of us, we would simply be extending the time we spend living with a serious disease and with poor quality of life—rather than enjoying life to the fullest, as we deserve to do in our golden years.
Learn More About Your Own Life Expectancy
Ready to understand how your lifestyle choices and other important factors are affecting your life expectancy? Give the Life Expectancy Calculator a try!
To learn more about all the factors that impact life expectancy, visit our Life Lessons section regularly for new posts.
