The opioid crisis also weighed on life expectancies for some groups, including Native Americans and Hispanics.
Indigenous Americans now live to an average of 65.2, down 6.6 years since 2019.
In 2021, about 109,000 people died due to drug overdoses, a record high in the country.
For white people, COVID-19 accounted for over half of the deaths.
Drug overdoses and other unintentional injuries contributed about 12 percent of the decline in life expectancy for this group.
Life expectancy for white people was 76.4 last year.
As of 2021, Black people had a life expectancy of 70.8 years.
COVID-19 came in second, accounting for about a quarter of the deaths for the groups.
Hispanic women are the only other group with a life expectancy over 80 years.
American Indian men had the lowest life expectancy, hovering at around 61.5 years in 2021.
Black men had the second-lowest life expectancy, at 66.7 years in 2021.
