"life expectancy fell by one-tenth of a year, from 78.9 in 2014 to 78.8 in 2015, according to the latest data. The last time U.S. life expectancy at birth decli

"life expectancy fell by one-tenth of a year, from 78.9 in 2014 to 78.8 in 2015, according to the latest data. The last time U.S. life expectancy at birth declined was in 1993, when it dropped from 75.6 to 75.4" "Experts cautioned against interpreting too much from a single year of data; the numbers could reverse themselves next year, they said." I'd be more suspicious of a completely monotonic data set. "For the first time since 1993" sounds dramatic in a headline but it also means it's only a single data point.