Record high life expectancy

Expectation of life at birth in the United States rose to a record high of 75.7 years in 1992. Life expectancy for newborn boys and girls also established new peaks, namely 72.2 years and 79.1 years, respectively. Just as noteworthy has been the recent marked reduction in the racial longevity gap. The narrowing in the expectation of life differential between whites and nonwhites resulted from the larger gains among people of color. Also encouraging is the continued decline in infant mortality--it fell to its lowest level ever (8.5 per 1,000 births). However, the outlook for AIDS mortality is disconcerting. Because of the mounting toll of these deaths, there will be a negative impact on expectation of life sometime in the near future.