HOME ABOUT REPORTS CONTACT HELP WANTED
DEATH TOLL FROM POVERTY IN THE U.S.
One of the most powerful weapons of mass destruction throughout history is poverty.
According to recently published research, 183,000 deaths in 2019 were associated with poverty in the U.S. among people 15 years and older.
This is a significant result as the data is from the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when death rates skyrocketed. So the current figures are potentially worse. Only heart disease, cancer, and smoking were associated with a greater number of deaths than cumulative poverty. Obesity, diabetes, drug overdoses, suicides, firearms, and homicides, among other common causes of death, were less lethal than poverty. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 4-17-23).
There's also the fact that federal health officials confirmed life expectancy in America has dropped for a nearly unprecedented second year in a row – down to 76 years. While countries all over the world saw life expectancy rebound during the second year of the pandemic after the arrival of vaccines, the U.S. did not. Across the lifespan, and across every demographic group, Americans die at younger ages than their counterparts in other wealthy nations. This represents a drastic change from the 1980s when the U.S. had a life expectancy similar to other wealthy nations.
And maternal mortality in the U.S. reached a high in 2021. Also, a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association found rising mortality rates among U.S. children and adolescents.
ARTICLES
Life expectancy continues to decline in the U.S. as it rebounds in other countries (NPR, 3-25-23)
How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries? (Health System Tracker, 12-6-22)
Poverty Is the Fourth Leading Cause of Death in the United States, Study Finds (Managed Healthcare, 4-23-23)
Poor people die younger in the U.S.(The Washington Post, 5-31-18)
REPORTS AND FACTS ON U.S. POVERTY
Novel Estimates of Mortality Associated With Poverty in the US (Jama Network, 4-17-23)
The New Crisis of Increasing All-Cause Mortality in US Children and Adolescents (Jama Network, 3-13-23)
Poverty Data Tables 1959-2020 (U.S. Census Bureau 2020)
2017 U.S. Poverty Statistics (Kairos PDF, 2017)
Facts on the Population of Poverty USA (Poverty USA)
GLOBAL POVERTY DEATHS INCREASE DUE TO COVID
According to the World Bank (PDF), mortality and poverty statistics have gotten much worse since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic.
ARTICLES AND REPORTS
Poverty Effects of the Covid 19 Pandemic (World Bank PDF)
Extreme Inequality and Poverty (Oxfam, 2021)