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.

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.

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.

Global life expectancy at birth has risen significantly since the mid-1900s, from roughly 46 years in 1950 to 73.2 years in 2023. Post-COVID-19 projections There was a drop of 1.7 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2019 and 2021, however, figures resumed upon their previous trajectory the following year due to the implementation of vaccination campaigns and the lower severity of later strains of the virus. By the end of the century it is believed that global life expectancy from birth will reach 82 years, although growth will slow in the coming decades as many of the more-populous Asian countries reach demographic maturity. However, there is still expected to be a wide gap between various regions at the end of the 2100s, with the Europe and North America expected to have life expectancies around 90 years, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to be in the low-70s. The Great Leap Forward While a decrease of one year during the COVID-19 pandemic may appear insignificant, this is the largest decline in life expectancy since the "Great Leap Forward" in China in 1958, which caused global life expectancy to fall by almost four years between by 1960. The "Great Leap Forward" was a series of modernizing reforms, which sought to rapidly transition China's agrarian economy into an industrial economy, but mismanagement led to tens of millions of deaths through famine and disease.

File Description: "Life Expectancy Data.csv" This dataset contains 2,938 entries and 22 columns, covering life expectancy and related health indicators for multiple nations from 2000 to 2015. It includes country-wise data and other economic, social, and health metrics. Column Description: 1. Country – Name of the country. 2. Year – Data year (ranging from 2000 to 2015). 3. Status – Economic classification (Developing/Developed). 4. Life expectancy – Average lifespan in years. 5. Adult Mortality – Probability of death between ages 15-60 per 1,000 individuals. 6. Infant Deaths – Number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births. 7. Alcohol – Per capita alcohol consumption. 8. Percentage Expenditure – Government health expenditure as a percentage of GDP. 9. Hepatitis B – Immunization coverage percentage. 10. Measles – Number of reported measles cases. 11. BMI – Average Body Mass Index. 12. Under-Five Deaths – Mortality rate for children under five. 13. Polio & Diphtheria – Immunization rates. 14. HIV/AIDS – Deaths due to HIV/AIDS per 1,000 individuals. 15. GDP – Gross Domestic Product per capita. 16. Population – Total population of the country. 17. Thinness (1-19 years, 5-9 years) – Percentage of underweight children. 18. Income Composition of Resources– Human development index proxy. 19. Schooling– Average number of years of schooling. Missing Data: Some columns (like Hepatitis B, GDP, Population, Total Expenditure) contain missing values. Further File Information: Total Countries: 193 Years Covered: 2000–2015 Total Entries: 2,938 Missing Data Overview: Some columns have missing values, notably: Hepatitis B (553 missing) GDP (448 missing) Population (652 missing) Total expenditure (226 missing) Income Composition of Resources (167 missing) Schooling (163 missing) Summary Statistics: Life Expectancy:

Range: 36.3 to 89 years Mean: 69.2 years Adult Mortality:

Mean: 165 per 1,000 Max: 723 per 1,000 GDP per Capita:

Mean: $7,483 Max: $119,172 Population:

Mean: ~12.75 million Max: 1.29 billion Education:

Schooling Average: 12 years Max: 20.7 years

Futuristic Scope of this data: For comparative analysis of the 2000–2015 life expectancy dataset with new datasets on the same parametres , you can perform several statistical tests and analytical methods based on different research questions. Below are some key tests and approaches:

1. Trend Analysis (Time-Series) Objective: Identify trends in life expectancy and related indicators over time. Methods: Moving Averages: Smooth fluctuations to detect trends. Linear/Polynomial Regression: Check whether life expectancy follows an increasing or decreasing trend. Time-Series Decomposition: Separate data into trend, seasonality, and residuals.
2. Descriptive Statistics & Comparative Summary Objective: Compare summary statistics between years or groups. Tests/Methods: Mean, Median, Standard Deviation: Compare distributions of life expectancy, GDP, or schooling. Boxplots & Histograms: Show variations over different years or between developing vs. developed countries. Coefficient of Variation (CV): Compare variability in life expectancy across regions.
3. Correlation & Regression Analysis Objective: Examine relationships between variables. Methods: Pearson/Spearman Correlation: Check relationships between life expectancy and GDP, health expenditure, etc. Multiple Linear Regression: Predict life expectancy based on GDP, immunization, and schooling. Multicollinearity (VIF Test): Ensure independent variables are not highly correlated.
4. Hypothesis Testing (Comparative Analysis) Test Objective When to Use? t-Test (Independent Samples) Compare life expectancy between developed & developing nations Two groups (e.g., 2000 vs. 2015, or developed vs. developing) Paired t-Test Compare life expectancy in the same country over two time periods Before/after comparison (e.g., 2000 vs. 2015 for the same country) ANOVA (One-Way) Compare life expectancy across multiple groups More than two groups (e.g., continents or income groups) Chi-Square Test Test if categorical distributions (e.g., immunization coverage) differ over time Categorical variables (e.g., immunization rates vs. year)
5. Clustering & Classification (Machine Learning) Objective: Group countries based on life expectancy patterns. Methods: K-Means Clustering: Identify groups with similar life expectancy trends. Hierarchical Clustering: Create a country similarity tree. Decision Trees/Random Forest: Classify countries based on development status using life expectancy factors.
6. Forecasting Future Trends Objective: Predict life expectancy in future years using historical data. Methods: ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average): Time-series forecasting. Exponential Smoothing: Forecast gradual trends. Machine Learning (LSTM, XGBoost): Predict based on multiple indicators.
7. Comparative Regional Analysis O...

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.

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

Context

Although there have been lot of studies undertaken in the past on factors affecting life expectancy considering demographic variables, income composition and mortality rates. It was found that affect of immunization and human development index was not taken into account in the past. Also, some of the past research was done considering multiple linear regression based on data set of one year for all the countries. Hence, this gives motivation to resolve both the factors stated previously by formulating a regression model based on mixed effects model and multiple linear regression while considering data from a period of 2000 to 2015 for all the countries. Important immunization like Hepatitis B, Polio and Diphtheria will also be considered. In a nutshell, this study will focus on immunization factors, mortality factors, economic factors, social factors and other health related factors as well. Since the observations this dataset are based on different countries, it will be easier for a country to determine the predicting factor which is contributing to lower value of life expectancy. This will help in suggesting a country which area should be given importance in order to efficiently improve the life expectancy of its population.

Content

The project relies on accuracy of data. The Global Health Observatory (GHO) data repository under World Health Organization (WHO) keeps track of the health status as well as many other related factors for all countries The data-sets are made available to public for the purpose of health data analysis. The data-set related to life expectancy, health factors for 193 countries has been collected from the same WHO data repository website and its corresponding economic data was collected from United Nation website. Among all categories of health-related factors only those critical factors were chosen which are more representative. It has been observed that in the past 15 years , there has been a huge development in health sector resulting in improvement of human mortality rates especially in the developing nations in comparison to the past 30 years. Therefore, in this project we have considered data from year 2000-2015 for 193 countries for further analysis. The individual data files have been merged together into a single data-set. On initial visual inspection of the data showed some missing values. As the data-sets were from WHO, we found no evident errors. Missing data was handled in R software by using Missmap command. The result indicated that most of the missing data was for population, Hepatitis B and GDP. The missing data were from less known countries like Vanuatu, Tonga, Togo, Cabo Verde etc. Finding all data for these countries was difficult and hence, it was decided that we exclude these countries from the final model data-set. The final merged file(final dataset) consists of 22 Columns and 2938 rows which meant 20 predicting variables. All predicting variables was then divided into several broad categories:​Immunization related factors, Mortality factors, Economical factors and Social factors.

Acknowledgements

The data was collected from WHO and United Nations website with the help of Deeksha Russell and Duan Wang.

Inspiration

The data-set aims to answer the following key questions: 1. Does various predicting factors which has been chosen initially really affect the Life expectancy? What are the predicting variables actually affecting the life expectancy? 2. Should a country having a lower life expectancy value(<65) increase its healthcare expenditure in order to improve its average lifespan? 3. How does Infant and Adult mortality rates affect life expectancy? 4. Does Life Expectancy has positive or negative correlation with eating habits, lifestyle, exercise, smoking, drinking alcohol etc. 5. What is the impact of schooling on the lifespan of humans? 6. Does Life Expectancy have positive or negative relationship with drinking alcohol? 7. Do densely populated countries tend to have lower life expectancy? 8. What is the impact of Immunization coverage on life Expectancy?

Tablice trwania życia, nazywane również tablicami wymieralności, obrazują zarówno przeciętne dalsze trwanie życia, jak również potencjalny schemat wymierania populacji. Przeciętne dalsze trwanie życia osoby w wieku x lat jest przewidywaniem długości trwania życia w przyszłości. Informuje ile przeciętnie lat ma do przeżycia osoba w wieku x ukończonych lat ma do przeżycia osoba w wieku x ukończonych lat, gdyby aktualnie obserwowane warunki umieralności utrzymywały się przez dostatecznie długi czas.

Najczęściej wykorzystywanym i cytowanym parametrem jest przeciętne trwanie życia noworodka lub krócej: przeciętne trwanie życia (oznaczane jako e0 ). Służy ono do badania zmian umieralności w czasie, jak również jest jedną z miar stanu zdrowia ludności. Służy również do porównań w obrębie kraju (np. międzywojewódzkich) oraz międzynarodowych.

Do budowy pełnych tablic trwania życia wykorzystuje się następujące dane:

• liczbę osób zmarłych w danym roku według ukończonego wieku,

• ludność według roczników wieku zgodnie ze stanem na 30 czerwca.

Źródło: GUS

This dataset contains healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy by gender, from birth and age 65.

Health life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged 'x' would live in good/fairly good health if he or she experiences the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates throughout their life.

Disability-free life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged 'x' would live disability-free (no limiting long-term illness) if he or she experienced the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates throughout their life.

The estimates are calculated by combining age and sex specific mortality rates, with age and sex specific rates on general health and limiting long-term illness.

For more information see the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies

This dataset contains details about life expectancy in in King County. It has been developed for the Determinant of Equity - Health and Human Services. It includes information about Life Expectancy equity indicator. Fields describe the the average life expectancy at birth (Indicator), and the value that describes this measurement (Indicator Value).The data was compiled by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), Center for Health Statistics.Vital RecordsFor more information about King County's equity efforts, please see:Equity, Racial & Social Justice VisionOrdinance 16948 describing the determinates of equityDeterminants of Equity and Data Tool

This dataset gives the average life expectancy and corresponding confidence intervals for each Chicago community area for the years 1990, 2000 and 2010. See the full description at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/api/views/qjr3-bm53/files/AAu4x8SCRz_bnQb8SVUyAXdd913TMObSYj6V40cR6p8?download=true&filename=P:\EPI\OEPHI\MATERIALS\REFERENCES\Life Expectancy\Dataset description - LE by community area.pdf

Air pollution globalization, as a combined effect of atmospheric transport and international trade, can lead to notable transboundary health impacts. Life expectancy reduction attribution analysis of transboundary pollution can reveal the effect of pollution globalization on the lives of individuals. This study coupled five state-of-the-art models to link the regional per capita life expectancy reduction to cross-boundary pollution transport attributed to consumption in other regions. Our results revealed that pollution due to consumption in other regions contributed to a global population-weighted PM2.5 concentration of 9 μg/m3 in 2017, thereby causing 1.03 million premature deaths and reducing the global average life expectancy by 0.23 year (≈84 days). Trade-induced transboundary pollution relocation led to a significant reduction in life expectancy worldwide (from 5 to 155 days per person), and even in the least polluted regions, such as North America, Western Europe, and Russia, a 12–61-day life expectancy reduction could be attributed to consumption in other regions. Our results reveal the individual risks originating from air pollution globalization. To protect human life, all regions and residents worldwide should jointly act together to reduce atmospheric pollution and its globalization as soon as possible.

This dataset contains healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy by gender, from birth and age 65. Health life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged 'x' would live in good/fairly good health if he or she experiences the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates throughout their life. Disability-free life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged 'x' would live disability-free (no limiting long-term illness) if he or she experienced the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates throughout their life. The estimates are calculated by combining age and sex specific mortality rates, with age and sex specific rates on general health and limiting long-term illness. For more information see the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies

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).

The life expectancy figure used is for males aged under 1 year. Figures are based on the number of deaths registered and mid-year population estimates, aggregated over three consecutive years.

Expectation of life at a given age for an area is the average number of years a person would live if he or she experienced that area's age-specific mortality rates for that time period throughout his or her life. It is therefore not the number of years someone of that age in the area could actually expect to live, both because the death rates of the area are likely to change in the future and because people may live in other areas for at least part of their lives.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

This table provides information on healthy life expectancy and overall life expectancy. This table presents four variants of healthy life expectancy: Life expectancy in well-experienced health. Life expectancy without physical limitations. Life expectancy without chronic diseases. Life expectancy in good mental health. Life expectancy in year X indicates how many years an average person of a certain age will still live, assuming that age-specific mortality rates throughout the rest of life will remain the same as in year X. Healthy life expectancy in year X indicates how many years an average person of a certain age will still live in good health, assuming that age-specific mortality and age-specific chances of good health throughout the rest of life will remain the same as in year X. In the table, the data on (healthy) life expectancy can be broken down to the following characteristics: —Gender —Age —Level of training —Period

Data available from: 1997/2000 to 2011/2014

Status of the figures: The figures in this table are final

Changes as of 18 January 2016 The figures in this table are partly from the Health Survey. As of 2014, CBS has added variables on income and wealth to the weighing model of the Health Survey. This is because some income groups and wealth groups are relatively less likely to participate in surveys than others. However, adding these variables to the weighing model was not done properly. This has caused some respondents’ responses to be counted too heavily in determining the figures to be published. Other respondents were taken with too low weight. Rectifying this error affects published figures using the 2014 Health Survey. However, the impact on the figures in this table is limited, as several volumes of Health Survey have been used, making the impact of the year 2014 relatively small.

Changes as of 9 December 2015 The table has been extended to include figures covering the period 2011/2014.

When are new figures coming? This table has been discontinued. New figures appear in the Healthy Life Expectancy table; level of education. See paragraph 3.

We used individual-level death data to estimate county-level life expectancy at 25 (e25) for Whites, Black, AIAN and Asian in the contiguous US for 2000-2005. Race-sex-stratified models were used to examine the associations among e25, rurality and specific race proportion, adjusted for socioeconomic variables. Individual death data from the National Center for Health Statistics were aggregated as death counts into five-year age groups by county and race-sex groups for the contiguous US for years 2000-2005 (National Center for Health Statistics 2000-2005). We used bridged-race population estimates to calculate five-year mortality rates. The bridged population data mapped 31 race categories, as specified in the 1997 Office of Management and Budget standards for the collection of data on race and ethnicity, to the four race categories specified under the 1977 standards (the same as race categories in mortality registration) (Ingram et al. 2003). The urban-rural gradient was represented by the 2003 Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC), which distinguished metropolitan counties by population size, and nonmetropolitan counties by degree of urbanization and adjacency to a metro area (United States Department of Agriculture 2016). We obtained county-level sociodemographic data for 2000-2005 from the US Census Bureau. These included median household income, percent of population attaining greater than high school education (high school%), and percent of county occupied rental units (rent%). We obtained county violent crime from Uniform Crime Reports and used it to calculate mean number of violent crimes per capita (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2010). This dataset is not publicly accessible because: EPA cannot release personally identifiable information regarding living individuals, according to the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This dataset contains information about human research subjects. Because there is potential to identify individual participants and disclose personal information, either alone or in combination with other datasets, individual level data are not appropriate to post for public access. Restricted access may be granted to authorized persons by contacting the party listed. It can be accessed through the following means: Request to author. Format: Data are stored as csv files. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Jian, Y., L. Neas, L. Messer, C. Gray, J. Jagai, K. Rappazzo, and D. Lobdell. Divergent trends in life expectancy across the rural-urban gradient among races in the contiguous United States. International Journal of Public Health. Springer Basel AG, Basel, SWITZERLAND, 64(9): 1367-1374, (2019).

71.84 (years) in 2010. Life Expectancy refers to the average number of years that people who already have lived to a certain age and can relive. It reflects integrated indicators of the level of human health and the level of death and is mainly affected by the level of social and economic conditions and health standards and other factors, and differs a lot in different societies and different period of time. In the case of not specified ages, the average life expectancy refers to life expectancy of the population aged 0.

71.31 (years) in 2010. Life Expectancy refers to the average number of years that people who already have lived to a certain age and can relive. It reflects integrated indicators of the level of human health and the level of death and is mainly affected by the level of social and economic conditions and health standards and other factors, and differs a lot in different societies and different period of time. In the case of not specified ages, the average life expectancy refers to life expectancy of the population aged 0.