A new report finds life expectancy in Wisconsin is on a downward trend. Life expectancy here has dropped for two years in a row. For a baby born in Wisconsin between 2015 and 2017 it’s 80 years, down from 80.2 years for babies born two years earlier.
A big reason, according to findings released Monday, is increased deaths linked to abuse of opioids and alcohol. Drug and alcohol deaths in Wisconsin have more than tripled since 1999, from 593 to over 19 hundred in 2017.
Our latest report looks at declining life expectancy in Wisconsin, mirroring a national trend driven by increasing rates of death from drugs, alcohol or suicide
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— Wisconsin Policy Forum (@WisPolicyForum) August 19, 2019
“Going back to 1999, the alcohol death in Wisconsin was about 7 per 100,000. That was very close to the national rate,” said Mark Sommerhauser, Communications Director/Researcher with Wisconsin Policy Forum. “By 2017, the most recent year that we have data for, in Wisconsin our death rate was about 13 and 1/2, almost 14 per 100,000 compared to the national rate which was about 11 per 100,000.
When it comes to opioid related deaths in the state, 65 died in 1999 compared to just over 900 2 years ago. The findings contained in the report mirror a national trend driven by increasing rates of death from drugs, alcohol or suicide
