How Florida's life expectancy declined in the pandemic

COVID-19 drove Floridians' life expectancy down by 1.5 years from 2019 to 2020, according to newly released CDC data.

Why it matters: The pandemic is taking a toll on our health as more Floridians are dying prematurely than expected.

• Increases in unintentional injuries, specifically drug overdose deaths, also contributed, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.

By the numbers: Our life expectancy at birth was 79 years in 2019, but dropped to 77.5 in 2020.

• Florida did better than the U.S. as a whole: The national average declined 1.8 years, to 77.
• New York and D.C. saw the greatest declines in life expectancy, with a 3-year drop and a 2.7-year drop respectively. The smallest decline in life expectancy was in Hawaii, with 0.2 years.

The big picture: Across the U.S., our life expectancy dropped a historic 2.7 years between 2019-21, according to preliminary 2020-21 data published by the CDC last week.

• It's the largest drop over a two-year period since the 1920s.
• And while other high-income countries started improving their life expectancies in 2021, the U.S. still suffered in comparison to places with more COVID mitigation strategies, the New York Times reports.