U.S. life expectancy rose last year, hitting its highest level since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, released Thursday, found that life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023. That's a significant rise " nearly a full year " from the life expectancy of 77.5 years in 2022. "The increase we had this year " the 0.9 year " that's unheard of prior to the pandemic," said Ken Kochanek, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics who co-authored the report. The new findings are based on an analysis of death certificates from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The results showed that the overall death rate for the U.S. population decreased by 6%.