Life expectancy, the number of years that an individual is expected to live as determined by statistics, is on the rise in the United States. Americans born in 2009 can expect to live 78.5 years, up from 78.1 years just one year prior. For males, life expectancy rose from 75.6 years for those born in 2008 to 76 years for those born in 2009. For females, it went from 80.6 years to 80.9 years. In that life expectancy may be largely influenced by advances in medicine and the public health system, experts attribute much of the continued increase in life expectancy to better treatment of cardiovascular disease.
