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COVID-19 has impacted the nation’s health, education system, and employment rates, among many other things. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it's also affecting how long people in the US could live: the country's life expectancy hit a 25-year low last year.
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- In 2020, US life expectancy was 77 years. In 2021, it was 76.1.
- COVID-19 has been the third-leading cause of death for the past two years. Last year, the virus led to approximately 460,000 deaths nationwide, though the CDC says the toll is likely higher. (COVID-19 deaths are sometimes incorrectly attributed to pneumonia or influenza.)
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- Coronavirus most affected the life expectancies of American Indians or Alaskan Natives and white Americans. Life expectancy decreased 1.3% for white people, falling from 77.4 years to 76.4. American Indian or Alaskan Native life expectances dropped almost two full years, from 67.1 to 65.2.
Explore additional charts here, and for more on what life expectancy means, read this article from our archives.
Demystifying capital gains
When someone sells a house, a stock, or another investment, any profit is called a capital gain. In 2019, about 26 million tax returns included capital gains, with a reported sum of nearly $865 billion. Who files these returns, and how are they taxed? Read on at USAFacts to find out.
- People earning more than $1 million annually made up 62% of net capital gains filed on returns. The average tax return for this income group had about $1,100,000 in net capital gains.
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- Over the last 40 years, Congress has changed the rules on capital gain tax rates. The maximum also changes with different presidential administrations and economic conditions. The current maximum rate of 20% plus the 3.8% net investment income tax is slightly lower than the rate between 2013 and 2017.
- Capital gains or losses are classified as short- or long-term. If someone sells an asset after owning it for a year or less, it’s short-term. If they owned it for more than a year before selling, it’s long-term. These distinctions can change; within the last century, the definition of a long-term gain/loss has ranged anywhere from one to five years.
- Corporate stock sales accounted for two-thirds of taxable individual capital gains in 2019. The rest was from property sales.
See more in this new article, including a chart on how gains are taxed.
Data behind the news
Hurricane Fiona has caused power outages and battered Puerto Rico so heavily that rescuers are having difficulty reaching people. This comes almost exactly five years since Hurricane Maria, one of the deadliest and most costly hurricanes in history, hit the island.
September 15 marked the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. USAFacts has a thorough collection of data for insight into this diverse demographic. Are Venezuelan Americans or Argentinian Americans more likely to have bachelor’s degrees? Which households tend to be larger: Mexican or Salvadoran? Click through for the answers.
The next installment of the USAFacts weekly quiz is ready for all you data-diehards.
One last fact
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Less than 4% of passenger cars in the US are electric. The federal government and some states have tax incentives to motivate electric car buyers — in some states, these total more than $10,000.
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