Black-White Life Expectancy Gap Expands, Recession May Be To Blame: For nearly two decades, the expected life spans of black and white Americans steadily narrowed, offering a hopeful indication of both racial progress and medical success: Everyone was living longer, and the gap was closing.
Then came 2009. For all Americans, the average life expectancy again nudged up for the year, reaching 78 years and two months according to preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control. But black Americans saw no improvement in life expectancy, remaining at 74 years and three months.
Some experts construe this unanticipated widening of the black-white life expectancy gap as a product of the Great Recession. The recession extracted brutal economic costs from nearly every slice of American society, particularly from African Americans. Nearly two years after the recession’s official end, black unemployment remains at 16.1 percent compared to the 8 percent of white Americans unable to find work. And it’s the stress that can come with a job loss that some experts say may explain the new size of the life expectancy gap.
