Data show increase in life expectancy, drop in homicide rates.

Reporting on data released by the National Center for Health Statistics, ABC World News (1/11, story 10, 0:25, Sawyer) reported that "life expectancy in America" has reached "a new high in 2010. Now, on average, a man can expect to live 76.2 years, women, 81.1 years. And that's an increase of two years for both men and women since 2000. Experts attribute the improvement to the trend towards better diet and exercise." The CBS Evening News (1/11, story 9, 0:20, Pelley) reported, "You might expect crime to go up in a bad economy but crime rates have dropped following the great recession, and today the Centers for Disease Control said that for the first time in 45 years, homicide is not among the top fifteen causes of death."

        The Washington Post (1/12, Brown) reports that "it was a pretty good year" for Americans' health, as "life expectancy clicked up a notch, the death rates fell for all five leading causes of death, and the death rate from homicide was as low as it's been in almost 50 years." Robert N. Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics, remarked, "We sort of expected those trends would continue, but what grabbed us here was the drop in homicide."

        In a story carried by more than 180 news sources, the AP (1/12, Stobbe) reports that it is "the first time in almost half a century" that "homicide has fallen off the list of the nation's top 15 causes of death, bumped by a lung illness that often develops in elderly people who have choked on their food." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it "is the first time since 1965 that homicide failed to make the list."

        USA Today (1/12, Johnson) reports, "Sherry Murphy, an author of the CDC analysis, said changes to the death list are generally rare." While "Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox said the CDC's findings may have more to do with changing demographics than with changes in the nation's crime culture," Carnegie Mellon University criminologist Alfred Blumstein attributed the decline "to a shift from the violent drug trade of the '80s and early '90s to a less volatile illegal prescription drug market."

        Bloomberg News (1/12, Peterson) reports, "In addition to declines for heart disease and cancer, death rates dropped for five other leading causes of death. Influenza and pneumonia-related fatalities dropped by a combined 8.5 percent, while deaths from blood infections dropped 3.6 percent. Fatal respiratory diseases, strokes and accidents also declined." Meanwhile, "mortality rates increased for five leading causes of death, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

        Also reporting this story are the Los Angeles Times (1/12, Roan) "Booster Shots" blog, Reuters (1/12, Kelleher), and HealthDay (1/12, Gardner).