WASHINGTON – Declines in death rates from most major causes – including heart disease and cancer – have pushed Americans’ life expectancy to a record 77.6 years. Women still are living longer than men, but the gap is narrowing.

Women have a life expectancy of 80.1 years – 5.3 more years than men. That’s down from 5.4 years in 2002 and continues a steady decline from a peak difference of 7.8 years in 1979, the National Center for Health Statistics said Monday in its annual mortality report.

Research also indicates an increase in active life expectancy, said Mary A. Salmon, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina.

“It’s not that we’re having a lot of very old, sick people,” she said.

While the overall life expectancy increase to 77.6 years is good news, Americans still trail many other countries, according to statistics from the World Health Organization.

In 2002 figures, Japan had the longest life expectancy at 81.9 years, followed by Monaco, 81.2; San Marino and Switzerland, 80.6; Australia, 80.4; Andorra, 80.3; and Iceland, 80.1.

In 2003, both of the two largest killers of Americans declined.

The death rate from heart disease decreased from 240.8 per 100,000 in 2002 to 232.1. The cancer death rate declined from 193.5 to 189.3 per 100,000.