Report: Life expectancy dipped a bit for white women in US

Life expectancy for white women has fallen a bit.

That's according to a new government report that finds that in 2014, the predicted life span for white women was about five weeks shorter than it was a year earlier.

It held steady for black women and white men, and it increased for black men, Hispanic men and Hispanic women.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously reported that life expectancy for all Americans born in 2014 was 78 years and nine and a-half months. That's the same prediction made for the previous two years.

The new report gives a breakdown by race and gender. It predicts that a white girl born in 2014 could expect to live about 81 years and one month.

The last time there was a decline in life expectancy for white women was in 2008. A CDC official says that was considered a statistical blip. He says the same could be true this time, or it could be "a harbinger of things to come."

Some recent reports have shown rising suicide and drug overdose death rates for white women, particularly middle-aged women.

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