In 2024, the average life expectancy in the world was 71 years for men and 76 years for women. The lowest life expectancies were found in Africa, while Oceania and Europe had the highest. What is life expectancy?Life expectancy is defined as a statistical measure of how long a person may live, based on demographic factors such as gender, current age, and most importantly the year of their birth. The most commonly used measure of life expectancy is life expectancy at birth or at age zero. The calculation is based on the assumption that mortality rates at each age were to remain constant in the future. Life expectancy has changed drastically over time, especially during the past 200 years. In the early 20th century, the average life expectancy at birth in the developed world stood at 31 years. It has grown to an average of 70 and 75 years for males and females respectively, and is expected to keep on growing with advances in medical treatment and living standards continuing. Highest and lowest life expectancy worldwide Life expectancy still varies greatly between different regions and countries of the world. The biggest impact on life expectancy is the quality of public health, medical care, and diet. As of 2022, the countries with the highest life expectancy were Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Australia, all at 84–83 years. Most of the countries with the lowest life expectancy are mostly African countries. The ranking was led by the Chad, Nigeria, and Lesotho with 53–54 years.

This statistic shows the average life expectancy in North America for those born in 2022, by gender and region. In Canada, the average life expectancy was 80 years for males and 84 years for females.

Life expectancy in North America

Of those considered in this statistic, the life expectancy of female Canadian infants born in 2021 was the longest, at 84 years. Female infants born in America that year had a similarly high life expectancy of 81 years. Male infants, meanwhile, had lower life expectancies of 80 years (Canada) and 76 years (USA).

Compare this to the worldwide life expectancy for babies born in 2021: 75 years for women and 71 years for men. Of continents worldwide, North America ranks equal first in terms of life expectancy of (77 years for men and 81 years for women). Life expectancy is lowest in Africa at just 63 years and 66 years for males and females respectively. Japan is the country with the highest life expectancy worldwide for babies born in 2020.

Life expectancy is calculated according to current mortality rates of the population in question. Global variations in life expectancy are caused by differences in medical care, public health and diet, and reflect global inequalities in economic circumstances. Africa’s low life expectancy, for example, can be attributed in part to the AIDS epidemic. In 2019, around 72,000 people died of AIDS in South Africa, the largest amount worldwide. Nigeria, Tanzania and India were also high on the list of countries ranked by AIDS deaths that year. Likewise, Africa has by far the highest rate of mortality by communicable disease (i.e. AIDS, neglected tropics diseases, malaria and tuberculosis).

In 2022 life expectancy for both males and females at birth fell when compared to 2021. Male life expectancy fell from 78.71 years to 78.57 years, and from 82.68 years to 82.57 years for women.

In 2021, women had an average life expectancy of ** years at birth, while men were expected to live 68.9 years. The average life expectancy worldwide dropped from 2019 to 2021, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This statistic depicts the average life expectancy at birth worldwide in 1990, 2019, and 2021, by gender.

Life expectancy at birth and at age 65, by sex, on a three-year average basis.

This statistic shows the average life expectancy in Europe for those born in 2024, by gender and region. The average life expectancy in Western Europe was 79 years for males and 84 years for females in 2024. Additional information on European life expectancy The difference in life expectancy seen between men and women across all European regions is in line with the global trends of women outliving men, on average. The average life expectancy at birth worldwide by income group shows that the gender life expectancy gap is not only a consistent trend across countries, but also income groups. Moreover, the higher life expectancy for those in high income groups may help to explain the lower average life expectancy for those born in Eastern Europe where average incomes are generally lower than other European regions. Although income and length of life are not directly correlated, higher income individuals are generally able to afford access to superior nutrition and healthcare as well as having leisure time for exercise. That said, current trends in the increases in life expectancy worldwide by country between 1970 and 2017 suggest economic growth will lead to larger increases in life expectancy. Those increases are less likely to occur to such a degree in the more developed regions of Europe where Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Iceland and Austria all rank in the top 20 countries with the highest life expectancy.

The life expectancy for men aged 65 years in the U.S. has gradually increased since the 1960s. Now men in the United States aged 65 can expect to live 17 more years on average. Women aged 65 years can expect to live around 19.7 more years on average.

Life expectancy in the U.S.

As of 2021, the average life expectancy at birth in the United States was 76.33 years. Life expectancy in the U.S. had steadily increased for many years but has recently dropped slightly. Women consistently have a higher life expectancy than men but have also seen a slight decrease. As of 2019, a woman in the U.S. could be expected to live up to 79.3 years.

Leading causes of death

The leading causes of death in the United States include heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases and cerebrovascular diseases. However, heart disease and cancer account for around 38 percent of all deaths. Although heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death for both men and women, there are slight variations in the leading causes of death. For example, unintentional injury and suicide account for a larger portion of deaths among men than they do among women.

From the mid-19th century until today, life expectancy at birth in the United States has roughly doubled, from 39.4 years in 1850 to 79.6 years in 2025. It is estimated that life expectancy in the U.S. began its upward trajectory in the 1880s, largely driven by the decline in infant and child mortality through factors such as vaccination programs, antibiotics, and other healthcare advancements. Improved food security and access to clean water, as well as general increases in living standards (such as better housing, education, and increased safety) also contributed to a rise in life expectancy across all age brackets. There were notable dips in life expectancy; with an eight year drop during the American Civil War in the 1860s, a seven year drop during the Spanish Flu empidemic in 1918, and a 2.5 year drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. There were also notable plateaus (and minor decreases) not due to major historical events, such as that of the 2010s, which has been attributed to a combination of factors such as unhealthy lifestyles, poor access to healthcare, poverty, and increased suicide rates, among others. However, despite the rate of progress slowing since the 1950s, most decades do see a general increase in the long term, and current UN projections predict that life expectancy at birth in the U.S. will increase by another nine years before the end of the century.

This table contains 2394 series, with data for years 1991 -1991 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 items: Canada ...), Population group (19 items: Entire cohort; Income adequacy quintile 1 (lowest);Income adequacy quintile 3;Income adequacy quintile 2 ...), Age (14 items: At 25 years; At 30 years; At 35 years; At 40 years ...), Sex (3 items: Both sexes; Females; Males ...), Characteristics (3 items: Probability of survival; Low 95% confidence interval; life expectancy; High 95% confidence interval; life expectancy ...).

On average, women live almost 6 years more than men in France. In 2024, female life expectancy at birth in France reached **** years compared to ** years for males. In 2023, life expectancy in France, regardless of gender, was ***** years. Thus, France is one of the countries in the world with the highest life expectancy. Women outlive men According to the source, there are differences in life expectancy between men and women in France. In 2004, female life expectancy in France was ****, compared to ** years for males. Since then, life expectancy for both genders has been evolving similarly. When life expectancy decreased slightly in 2015, it affected both men and women. Similarly, when life expectancy increased. But one aspect remained the same: male life expectancy remains lower than female life expectancy. This difference has been seen not only in France. In Europe, females are expected to live longer than men in every region. While women in France have a longer life expectancy, they are also expected to have a higher number of healthy life years. In 2013, a study from Eurostat showed that French women had several expected healthy years of ****, compared to ** years for men. An aging population Like other Western countries, France has an aging population. French citizens aged 65 years and older are now more than the French aged from 0 to 14 years old. The median age of the population in the country has been increasing since the nineties, while the share of seniors reached almost ** percent of the population in 2013.

In 2021, a woman in the United States aged 65 years could expect to live another **** years on average. This number decreased in the years 2020 and 2021, after reaching a high of **** years in 2019. Nevertheless, the life expectancy of a woman aged 65 years in the United States is still higher than that of a man of that age. In 2021, a man aged 65 years could be expected to live another 17 years on average.

Why has the life expectancy in the U.S. declined? Overall, life expectancy in the United States has declined in recent years. In 2019, the life expectancy for U.S. women was **** years, but by 2021 it had decreased to **** years. Likewise, the life expectancy for men decreased from **** years to **** years in the same period. The biggest contributors to this decline in life expectancy are the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic. Although deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic have decreased significantly since 2022, deaths from opioid overdose continue to increase, reaching all-time highs in 2021.

The leading causes of death among U.S. women The leading causes of death among women in the United States in 2020 were heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19. That year heart disease and cancer accounted for a combined ** percent of all deaths among women, while around ** percent of deaths were due to COVID-19. The overall leading causes of death in the United States generally reflect the leading causes among women with some slight variations. For example, Alzheimer’s disease is the fourth leading cause of death among women, but the seventh leading cause of death overall in the United States.

Over the past 75 years, women have generally had a higher life expectancy than men by around 4-6 years. Reasons for this difference include higher susceptibility to childhood diseases among males; higher rates of accidental deaths, conflict-related deaths, and suicide among adult men; and higher prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle habits and chronic illnesses, as well as higher susceptibility to chronic diseases among men. Therefore, men not only have lower life expectancy than women overall, but also throughout each stage of life. Throughout the given period, there were notable dips in life expectancy for both sexes, including a roughly four year drop in 1960 due to China's so-called Great Leap Forward, and a 1.8 year drop due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Across the world, differences in life expectancy can vary between the sexes by large margins. In countries such as the Nordics, for example, the difference is low due to high-quality healthcare systems and access, as well as high quality diets and lifestyles. In Eastern Europe, however, the difference is over 10 years in Russia and Ukraine due to the war, although the differences were already very pronounced in this region before 2022, in large part driven by unhealthier lifestyles among men.

The ability to predict when an individual will die can be extremely useful for many research problems in aging. A technique for predicting death in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster , has been proposed which relies on an increase in the permeability of the fly intestinal system, allowing dyes from the diet to permeate the body of the fly shortly before death. In this study we sought to verify this claim in a large cohort study using different populations of D. melanogaster and different dyes. We found that only about 50% of the individuals showed a visible distribution of dye before death. This number did not vary substantially with the dye used. Most flies that did turn a blue color before death did so within 24 hours of death. There was also a measurable effect of the dye on the fly mean longevity. These results would tend to limit the utility of this method depending on the application the method was intended for.

Methods Populations

Five large independent populations of Drosophila melanogaster were used in this experiment. Two of these populations, ACO and CO, are large, outbred populations that have been maintained on different age-at-reproduction schedules for hundreds of generations. The ACO population was maintained on 9 day discrete generation cycles. The CO population was kept on 28 day discrete generation cycles. The remaining populations, S93, A4 3852 and Canton S (CAS), were inbred lines raised on three week cycles in the Long lab at the University of California, Irvine. All populations were raised in identical conditions of temperature, food, cultures and density for three generations prior to these experiments .

Mortality Assay

Adult, 14 day old (from egg) flies were knocked out with CO2 gas and placed into individual plastic straws about 4 inches in length and capped with plastic pipette tips on both ends (Fig. 1). During anesthetization, a steady supply of CO2was flowing through a semi-porous plate. The flies were placed on the plate and separated by gender and each fly was gently swept into the plastic straw using a fine painters brush. An equal number of females and males were used per population. Food was provided to each fly at one end of the straw. Each fly was transferred to a new straw with new food and new pipette tips every 3 days to maintain a clean environment. The straw length and girth permitted individuals to fly from one end to the other.

The process of transferring the flies, as well as daily checking of the flies, required a light tapping of the fly into the pipette tip. Cohorts of about 56 adult flies, equal numbers of males and females from each of the five populations were exposed to either control food or food with one of six dyes (table 1) added to their food. Substantial replication was used. Thus, the original dye, SPS Alfachem, was replicated in 5 different populations, and each population was replicated in 6 different dye environments. The use of different FDA FD&C Blue dye #1’s permitted us to determine if the development of the SMURF phenotype was sensitive to the particular dye used. By using a combination of different populations of D. melanogaster,which varied in levels of inbreeding, we could determine if the development of the SMURF phenotype was limited to inbred populations.

The flies were exposed to the blue dyes from day 14 (from egg) continuously to their death. Each fly was individually checked underneath a microscope and light to see if it had become a ‘smurf’. Smurf status required that the entire body changed to any variation of a blue color. This was an important distinction as all the Drosophilaflies fed food with a blue dye would have visible blue coloring in only the gut portion when they weren’t a Smurf. Some of the dyes resulted in a slight variation in blue color in the Smurfs. Every day under a microscope with a light we looked for any change of color in the fly thorax, head and abdomen. If the fly was any shade of blue in all three sections, it was marked as a Smurf and was then checked daily to see when it died. We did not limit our observations to individual sections of the fly, such as only the thorax, for our evaluation of when a fly became a Smurf.

Tapping

We did the tapping experiment to see if the physical disruption, the process of tapping the fly into the pipette tip, affected the mean longevity and lifespan of the fly. A total of 164 ACO flies were chosen for this assay – 83 males and 81 females. The 164 flies were placed into regular food straws with no dye. A total of 84 flies (42 male and 42 female) were tapped 5 times daily, mimicking the checking that occurred in the original experiment, and the other 81 (41 males and 39 females) flies were not tapped. The flies were transferred to new straws, with fresh food and new pipette tips every 3 days. Each fly was checked daily for movement and if no movement was detected, the fly was classified as deceased on that day. Only ACO flies were used as the purpose of the Tapping experiment was to see if our methods for checking for Smurf flies would affect the mean longevity of the fly.

Food & Dyes

Flies were provided with banana-molasses food with one of the dyes added. The control flies received only banana molasses food in their respective straws. The recipe for the banana molasses food used in the lab, as well as the experiment, can be found in the Supplemental Portion. Food with dye was prepared by mixing 2.5 grams of each dye to create a 100 ml solution of the banana molasses food mixed with the dye (2.5% wt/vol). Food was always prepared the day before it was needed and stored in a refrigerator until it was used. The dyes were kept separate and carefully handled so no cross-contamination occurred during the preparation and food blending process.

Statistical Analysis

To analyze the effects of dye, sex and population on longevity we let yijklbe the age at death of the lth individual of sex-i(i=1 (female), 2 (male)), treatment-j (j=1,,..,7 (see table 1 of paper, 7=control)), and population-k(k=1,..,5 (see table 1 of paper)), whereds=0 if s=1, and 1 otherwise, eijklis an error term assumed to have normal distribution with mean 0 and variance s2. An initial test showed no significant differences between sexes so the final model tested did not include the bparameter. These tests were run with R (version 3.4.3, R Core team, 2017) and the lmfunction. Pairwise tests with Bonferroni corrections for simultaneous tests were conducted with the R emmeansfunction.

    At the time of death each fly was classified according to their sex, population, treatment, and Smurf status (blue: yes or no). Using hierarchical log-linear models (loglmfunction in the R MASS package) we tested in succession whether sex, treatment, and population would have an effect on Smurf status at the time of death. 

A t-test was performed on the Tapping Experiment results, comparing the mean longevity of the tapped flies versus the non-tapped flies to see if the mechanical disruption would affect their mean longevity.

A global phenomenon, known as the demographic transition, has seen life expectancy from birth increase rapidly over the past two centuries. In pre-industrial societies, the average life expectancy was around 24 years, and it is believed that this was the case throughout most of history, and in all regions. The demographic transition then began in the industrial societies of Europe, North America, and the West Pacific around the turn of the 19th century, and life expectancy rose accordingly. Latin America was the next region to follow, before Africa and most Asian populations saw their life expectancy rise throughout the 20th century.

In 2022, the average life expectancy of women in Japan was approximately **** years, whereas the life expectancy of men reached around **** years. The average life expectancy of both men and women in Japan indicated a ******** for two consecutive years. Aging workforce Japan has one of the highest proportions of senior citizens worldwide, with almost ** percent of the country’s population aged 65 years and older. The growing average life expectancy and declining fertility rates led to this demographic shift. To secure the nation's workforce despite the aging population, the Japanese government amended the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons in 2021 and requested Japanese enterprises to raise the retirement age to 70 for employees who wish to continue working after turning 60 or 65. Causes of death The leading causes of death in Japan are *****************************************************************. Lung cancer is the most mortal cancer site among Japanese men and women, but its mortality risk has declined from the 1990s onward. This development can be partially attributed to the downward trend in tobacco consumption. Since peaking in the 1970s, tobacco consumption in Japan has steadily declined, noticeable from the continuous decrease in the cigarette industry’s annual sales volume growth. Apart from a growing awareness regarding health risks, this downward movement can be explained by a tightening of prefectural no-smoking policies in the streets, many restaurants, and public places in general.

As of 2023, the countries with the highest life expectancy included Switzerland, Japan, and Spain. As of that time, a new-born child in Switzerland could expect to live an average of **** years. Around the world, females consistently have a higher average life expectancy than males, with females in Europe expected to live an average of *** years longer than males on this continent. Increases in life expectancy The overall average life expectancy in OECD countries increased by **** years from 1970 to 2019. The countries that saw the largest increases included Turkey, India, and South Korea. The life expectancy at birth in Turkey increased an astonishing 24.4 years over this period. The countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide as of 2022 were Chad, Lesotho, and Nigeria, where a newborn could be expected to live an average of ** years. Life expectancy in the U.S. The life expectancy in the United States was ***** years as of 2023. Shockingly, the life expectancy in the United States has decreased in recent years, while it continues to increase in other similarly developed countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and increasing rates of suicide and drug overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic have been cited as reasons for this decrease.

In the observed period, the average life expectancy increased in Poland. The average life expectancy for women in 2023 was ** years. For comparison, in 1950, women lived ** years shorter on average. Statistically, women live longer than men in Poland.

Monaco had the highest life expectancy among both men and women worldwide as of 2024. That year, life expectancy for men and women was ** and ** years, respectively. The East Asian countries and regions, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Macao, followed. Many of the countries on the list are struggling with aging populations and a declining workforce as more people enter retirement age compared to people entering employment.

It is only in the past two centuries where demographics and the development of human populations has emerged as a subject in its own right, as industrialization and improvements in medicine gave way to exponential growth of the world's population. There are very few known demographic studies conducted before the 1800s, which means that modern scholars have had to use a variety of documents from centuries gone by, along with archeological and anthropological studies, to try and gain a better understanding of the world's demographic development. Genealogical records One such method is the study of genealogical records from the past; luckily, there are many genealogies relating to European families that date back as far as medieval times. Unfortunately, however, all of these studies relate to families in the upper and elite classes; this is not entirely representative of the overall population as these families had a much higher standard of living and were less susceptible to famine or malnutrition than the average person (although elites were more likely to die during times of war). Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from this data. Impact of the Black Death In the centuries between 1200 and 1745, English male aristocrats who made it to their 21st birthday were generally expected to live to an age between 62 and 72 years old. The only century where life expectancy among this group was much lower was in the 1300s, where the Black Death caused life expectancy among adult English noblemen to drop to just 45 years. Experts assume that the pre-plague population of England was somewhere between four and seven million people in the thirteenth century, and just two million in the fourteenth century, meaning that Britain lost at least half of its population due to the plague. Although the plague only peaked in England for approximately eighteen months, between 1348 and 1350, it devastated the entire population, and further outbreaks in the following decades caused life expectancy in the decade to drop further. The bubonic plague did return to England sporadically until the mid-seventeenth century, although life expectancy among English male aristocrats rose again in the centuries following the worst outbreak, and even peaked at more than 71 years in the first half of the sixteenth century.

For most of the world, throughout most of human history, the average life expectancy from birth was around 24. This figure fluctuated greatly depending on the time or region, and was higher than 24 in most individual years, but factors such as pandemics, famines, and conflicts caused regular spikes in mortality and reduced life expectancy. Child mortality The most significant difference between historical mortality rates and modern figures is that child and infant mortality was so high in pre-industrial times; before the introduction of vaccination, water treatment, and other medical knowledge or technologies, women would have around seven children throughout their lifetime, but around half of these would not make it to adulthood. Accurate, historical figures for infant mortality are difficult to ascertain, as it was so prevalent, it took place in the home, and was rarely recorded in censuses; however, figures from this source suggest that the rate was around 300 deaths per 1,000 live births in some years, meaning that almost one in three infants did not make it to their first birthday in certain periods. For those who survived to adolescence, they could expect to live into their forties or fifties on average. Modern figures It was not until the eradication of plague and improvements in housing and infrastructure in recent centuries where life expectancy began to rise in some parts of Europe, before industrialization and medical advances led to the onset of the demographic transition across the world. Today, global life expectancy from birth is roughly three times higher than in pre-industrial times, at almost 73 years. It is higher still in more demographically and economically developed countries; life expectancy is over 82 years in the three European countries shown, and over 84 in Japan. For the least developed countries, mostly found in Sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy from birth can be as low as 53 years.