Tennessee's life expectancy drops

Tennessee's life expectancy is getting shorter — a troubling trend driven, at least in part, by the opioid epidemic .

Why it matters: The life expectancy in Tennessee is four years shorter than the national average, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data .

State of play: Tennessee's life expectancy dropped to 72.4 years in 2021, ranking us No. 46 in the United States. It fell from 73.8 years in 2020 — a 1.4-year drop.

• The national life expectancy decreased by 0.6 years in the same time frame.

Driving the news: The COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdoses are significant factors in the nationwide drop, per the CDC report.

Zoom in: Tennessee is one of the states struggling the most with overdose deaths, according to an analysis from the United Health Foundation.

• Drug overdoses killed 3,826 people in Tennessee in 2022, the most recent year with available state health data . That's a 110% jump compared to 2018.

Between the lines: Women are expected to live longer than men across the country.

• In Tennessee, women had a life expectancy of 75.5 years in 2021, compared with 69.4 years for men, per the CDC data.

Zoom out: Hawaii (79.9 years), Massachusetts (79.6) and Connecticut (79.2) have the longest life expectancy at birth as of 2021.

• Mississippi (70.9 years), West Virginia (71) and Alabama (72) round out the bottom of the list.

The bottom line: With the worst of the pandemic behind us, these numbers will likely improve in future reports — as preliminary data suggested .

• Still, both COVID and drug overdoses remain serious public health challenges.

Sign up for Axios Nashville for free.