Death Rate Gap Between Black, White Americans Hits 20-Year High
- Black Americans saw 1.6 million excess deaths in last 20 years
- Heart disease, Covid among key drivers of health disparities
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The gap in death rates between Black and White Americans remained wide over the last two decades and worsened during the pandemic, according to a study finding massive differences in excess mortality between the populations.
Black people in the US saw more than 1.6 million excess deaths when compared to the country’s White population over the last two decades, resulting in roughly 80 million extra years of potential life lost during that time, according to the findings published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Age-adjusted death rates ranged from 21% to 40% higher among Black males and from 13% to 31% higher among Black females compared with their White counterparts.