As opposed to Europe, despite the US' superior wealth, Americans seem to live shorter lives. For instance, life expectancy for American men shows 73.2 years compared to 78.7 years for their British counterparts while American women show 79.1 years, and women in the UK live an average of 82.8 years.

Long-term factors such as inequality do play a significant role, but even though the US enjoys a higher GDP per capita than Europe, that doesn’t mean it is fairly distributed. 

Even if factors such as obesity (which the US is unfortunately notorious for) and intense smoking are controlled, American youth seems to still die early. 

The reason? The US continues to encourage self-destruction through uncontrolled gun regulations, drugs, and cars. 

The death rate due to car crashes in the US is at 12.4 per 100,000 people compared to 2.9 in the UK. 

Drugs are being unleashed onto the youth, and there is a critically increasing number of children aged five and younger in the US who have died from opioid overdoses. 

731 children aged five and under were among drug fatalities between the years 2005 and 2018. While some were poisoned by over-the-counter pain or allergy medicines, most of the fatalities were from opioids.

This data doesn't also account for the factor of mental health that has been recently taking on a toll on the American youth. A study published by the CDC revealed that the US reached new lows in terms of youth mental health and well-being, CNN reported last month.

According to the results, teenage girls are most likely to endure experiences of sadness, violence, and suicide risk. About 57% of American girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. That amount is double that of boys, which is reportedly about 29%.