Finally, some good news is coming from the federal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its latest report issued on Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics reveals that life expectancy in the United States hit a record high in 2006 of 78.1 years for the first time in years, representing a 0.3 increase from 2005.

More exactly, life expectancy rose to new highs for white males (76), black males (70), white females (81), and black females (76.9). The CDC said the increase is due mainly to falling mortality in almost all 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Here are some examples: heart disease deaths registered a 5.5 percent drop; cancer, a 1.6 percent drop; stroke, a 6.4 percent drop; diabetes, a 5.3 percent drop; high blood pressure, 5 percent; Parkinson’s disease, 1.6 percent; Alzheimer’s disease, 0.9 percent; suicide, 2.8 percent; homicide, 1.6 percent; chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, 3.3 percent; accidents, 1.5 percent and septicemia, 2.7 percent.

Influenza and pneumonia deaths had the steepest drop, at 13 percent, compared to the previous year.

Also, the U.S. infant mortality rate dropped more than 2 percent to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, from 6.9.

Overall, the 2006 age-adjusted death rate fell to 776.4 deaths per 100,000 population from 799 deaths per 100,000 in 2005. About 2.4 million Americans died in 2006, the report showed.

These findings show that “we may be in the process of catching up,” Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer said referring to the fact that America’s life expectancy is still lower than other nations’, the Associated Press reports. Japan, for example, has the longest life expectancy, a child born in 2006 having an average life expectancy of 83, according to the World Health Organization data. Japan is followed by Switzerland, France, and Australia with more than 80 years.

The CDC findings were based on the analysis of more than 95 percent of death certificates collected in 2006, as part of the National Vital Statistic System.