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.

As of 2023, the countries with the highest life expectancy included Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Japan. In Japan, a person could expect to live up to around ** years. In general, the life expectancy for females is higher than that of males, with lifestyle choices and genetics the two major determining factors of life expectancy. Life expectancy worldwide The overall life expectancy worldwide has increased since the development of modern medicine and technology. In 2011, the global life expectancy was **** years. By 2023, it had increased to **** years. However, the years 2020 and 2021 saw a decline in global life expectancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, not every country has seen a substantial increase in life expectancy. In Nigeria, for example, the life expectancy is only ** years, almost ***years shorter than the global average. In addition to Nigeria, the countries with the shortest life expectancy include Chad, Lesotho, and the Central African Republic. Life expectancy in the U.S. In the United States, life expectancy at birth is currently ***** years. Life expectancy in the U.S. generally increases every year, however, over the past decade, life expectancy has seen some surprising decreases. The major contributing factors to this drop have been the ongoing opioid epidemic, which claimed around ****** lives in 2022 alone, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by region using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Africa. The data is about countries.

This statistic shows the countries and territories with the highest projected life expectancy between 2050 and 2055. Between 2050 and 2055, Hong Kong SAR is projected to have a life expectancy at birth of 89.22 years.

The countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide include the Nigeria, Chad, and Lesotho. As of 2023, people born in Nigeria could be expected to live only up to ** years. This is almost ** years shorter than the global life expectancy. Life expectancy The global life expectancy has gradually increased over the past couple decades, rising from **** years in 2011 to **** years in 2023. However, the years 2020 and 2021 saw a decrease in global life expectancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, life expectancy can vary greatly depending on the country and region. For example, all the top 20 countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide are in Africa. The countries with the highest life expectancy include Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Japan. Causes of death The countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide are all low-income or developing countries that lack health care access and treatment that more developed countries can provide. The leading causes of death in these countries therefore differ from those of middle-income and upper-income countries. The leading causes of death in low-income countries include diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, as well as preterm birth complications, which do not cause substantial death in higher income countries.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by currency using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Micronesia. The data is about countries.

The average for 2022 based on 12 countries was 72.9 years. The highest value was in Chile: 79.52 years and the lowest value was in Bolivia: 64.93 years. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Japan life expectancy for 2025 is 85.27, a 0.14% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>Japan life expectancy for 2024 was <strong>85.15</strong>, a <strong>0.14% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>Japan life expectancy for 2023 was <strong>85.03</strong>, a <strong>0.14% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>Japan life expectancy for 2022 was <strong>84.91</strong>, a <strong>0.14% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by region using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Europe. The data is about countries.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by country full name using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Middle Africa. The data is about countries.

Monaco is the country with the highest median age in the world. The population has a median age of around 57 years, which is around six years more than in Japan and Saint Pierre and Miquelon – the other countries that make up the top three. Southern European countries make up a large part of the top 20, with Italy, Slovenia, Greece, San Marino, Andorra, and Croatia all making the list. Low infant mortality means higher life expectancy Monaco and Japan also have the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, which contributes to the calculation of a higher life expectancy because fewer people are dying in the first years of life. Indeed, many of the nations with a high median age also feature on the list of countries with the highest average life expectancy, such as San Marino, Japan, Italy, and Lichtenstein. Demographics of islands and small countries Many smaller countries and island nations have populations with a high median age, such as Guernsey and the Isle of Man, which are both island territories within the British Isles. An explanation for this could be that younger people leave to seek work or education opportunities, while others choose to relocate there for retirement.

Men born in Chad have the lowest life expectancy in the world as of 2024, reaching only 53 years. The lowest life expectancy for women in the world in 2024 was for girls born in Nigeria, with only 55 years. Except for Afghanistan, all the countries with the lowest life expectancy in the world are in Africa.

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.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by ISO 3 country code using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Europe. The data is about countries.

Data for Figures and Tables in "Bounce backs amid continued losses: Life expectancy changes since COVID-19" cc-by Jonas Schöley, José Manuel Aburto, Ilya Kashnitsky, Maxi S. Kniffka, Luyin Zhang, Hannaliis Jaadla, Jennifer B. Dowd, and Ridhi Kashyap. "Bounce backs amid continued losses: Life expectancy changes since COVID-19". These are CSV files of data in the figures and tables published in the paper "Bounce backs amid continued losses: Life expectancy changes since COVID-19". 50-e0diffT.csv Figure 1: Life expectancy changes 2019/20 and 2020/21 across countries. The countries are ordered by increasing cumulative life expectancy losses since 2019. Grey dots indicate the average annual LE changes over the years 2015 through 2019. 51-arriagaT.csv Figure 2: Age contributions to life expectancy changes since 2019 separated for 2020 and 2021. The position of the arrowhead indicates the total contribution of mortality changes in a given age group to the change in life expectancy at birth since 2019. The discontinuity in the arrow indicates those contributions separately for the years 2020 and 2021. Annual contributions can compound or reverse. The total life expectancy change from 2019 to 2021 in a given country is the sum of the arrowhead positions across age. 52-sexdiff.csv Figure 3: Change in the female life expectancy advantage from 2019 through 2021. Blue colors indicate an increase and red colors a decrease in the female life expectancy advantage. Muted colors indicate non-significant changes. 53-e0diffcodT.csv Figure 4: Life expectancy deficit in 2021 decomposed into contributions by age and cause of death. LE deficit is defined as observed minus expected life expectancy had pre-pandemic mortality trends continued. 55-vaxe0.csv Figure 5: Years of life expectancy deficit during October through December 2021 contributed by ages <60 and 60+ against % of population twice vaccinated by October 1st in the respective age groups. LE deficit is defined as the counterfactual LE from a Lee-Carter mortality forecast based on death rates for the fourth quarter of the years 2015 to 2019 minus observed LE. 54-tab_arriaga.csv Table 1: Months of life expectancy (LE) changes and deficits (labelled ES) since the start of the pandemic attributed to age-specific mortality changes (labelled AT). LE deficit is defined as observed minus expected life expectancy had pre-pandemic mortality trends continued.

BackgroundDecades of steady improvements in life expectancy in Europe slowed down from around 2011, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, for reasons which remain disputed. We aimed to assess how changes in risk factors and cause-specific death rates in different European countries related to changes in life expectancy in those countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe used data and methods from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 to compare changes in life expectancy at birth, causes of death, and population exposure to risk factors in 16 European Economic Area countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden) and the four UK nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) for three time periods: 1990–2011, 2011–19, and 2019–21. Changes in life expectancy and causes of death were estimated with an established life expectancy cause-specific decomposition method, and compared with summary exposure values of risk factors for the major causes of death influencing life expectancy.FindingsAll countries showed mean annual improvements in life expectancy in both 1990–2011 (overall mean 0·23 years [95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0·23 to 0·24]) and 2011–19 (overall mean 0·15 years [0·13 to 0·16]). The rate of improvement was lower in 2011–19 than in 1990–2011 in all countries except for Norway, where the mean annual increase in life expectancy rose from 0·21 years (95% UI 0·20 to 0·22) in 1990–2011 to 0·23 years (0·21 to 0·26) in 2011–19 (difference of 0·03 years). In other countries, the difference in mean annual improvement between these periods ranged from –0·01 years in Iceland (0·19 years [95% UI 0·16 to 0·21] vs 0·18 years [0·09 to 0·26]), to –0·18 years in England (0·25 years [0·24 to 0·25] vs 0·07 years [0·06 to 0·08]). In 2019–21, there was an overall decrease in mean annual life expectancy across all countries (overall mean –0·18 years [95% UI –0·22 to –0·13]), with all countries having an absolute fall in life expectancy except for Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which showed marginal improvement in life expectancy, and Belgium, which showed no change in life expectancy. Across countries, the causes of death responsible for the largest improvements in life expectancy from 1990 to 2011 were cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases were the primary driver of reductions in life expectancy improvements during 2011–19, and deaths from respiratory infections and other COVID-19 pandemic-related outcomes were responsible for the decreases in life expectancy during 2019–21. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms in 2019 were attributable to high systolic blood pressure, dietary risks, tobacco smoke, high LDL cholesterol, high BMI, occupational risks, high alcohol use, and other risks including low physical activity. Exposure to these major risk factors differed by country, with trends of increasing exposure to high BMI and decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke observed in all countries during 1990–2021.InterpretationThe countries that best maintained improvements in life expectancy after 2011 (Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden) did so through better maintenance of reductions in mortality from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, underpinned by decreased exposures to major risks, possibly mitigated by government policies. The continued improvements in life expectancy in five countries during 2019–21 indicate that these countries were better prepared to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, countries with the greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements after 2011 went on to have some of the largest decreases in life expectancy in 2019–21. These findings suggest that government policies that improve population health also build resilience to future shocks. Such policies include reducing population exposure to major upstream risks for cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, such as harmful diets and low physical activity, tackling the commercial determinants of poor health, and ensuring access to affordable health services.

This statistic shows the top ten countries worldwide with longest average female life expectancy at birth in 2010 and 2030. South Korea had the longest average life expectancy for females in 2030 at 90.82 years.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by ISO 2 country code using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Africa. The data is about countries.

This statistic shows the top ten countries worldwide with the longest average male life expectancy at birth in 2010 and 2030. South Korea had an average male life expectancy in 2030 of 84.07 years.