The life expectancy for people in Wisconsin has declined for a second straight year, according to a new report. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum compiled data from the state department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing increased deaths from alcohol abuse and opioids. The group’s policy researcher, Mark Sommerhauser, says he also noticed a troubling mortality trend among the state’s black residents. Mortality rates for black Americans were down by six percent during that same time period. Sommerhauser says he’s unsure of the exact cause of the trend but notes the state’s opioid death rate for black people in 2017 was nearly double the national average. In Milwaukee County the opioid death rate for all races was more than twice the statewide rate between 2013 and 2017. Of the most recent data available, the life expectancy for babies born in Wisconsin from 2015 to 2017 was 80 years, Sommerhauser says that’s down from 80-point-1 in 2014 through 2016 and from 80-point-2 years in 2013 through 2015. Sommerhauser says their research did not evaluate if the state life expectancy decline is statistically significant, as that is not calculated by the Department of Health Services. Overdoses and rising suicide deaths have driven the national decrease in life expectancy, with an increase in alcohol-related deaths also playing a role, according to experts at the CDC.
