Global life expactancy at birth has risen significantly since the mid-1900s, from roughly 46 years in 1950 to 73.5 years in 2025. 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.

The significant increase in life expectancy over the past 75 years has largely been driven by reductions in infant and child mortality, and has seen life expectancy from birth increase by 27 years between 1950 and 2024. However, this is not the only driver of increased life expectancy, as humanity has also got much better at prolonging life for adults. In 1950, 65-year-olds could expect to live for another 11 years on average, while this has risen to almost 18 years in 2024. The notable dips in life expectancy are due to China's Great Leap Forward around 1960, famine and conflict in Asia (especially Bangladesh) around 1970, and the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s.

Chart and table of India life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

Life expectancy from birth in Africa was just over 36 years in 1950. As a wave of independence movements and decolonization swept the continent between the 1950s and early 1970s, life expectancy rose greatly in Africa; particularly due to improvements and control over medical services, better sanitation and the widespread promotion of vaccinations in the country resulted in a sharp decrease in child mortality; one of the most significant reasons for Africa’s low life expectancy rates. Life expectancy in the continent would continue to steadily increase for much of the second half of the 20th century, however, life expectancy would flatline at around 52 years in the latter half of the 1980s, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic quickly grew to become one of the leading causes of death in the continent. After hovering around the low-fifties in the 1980s to and 1990s, life expectancy would begin to rise again at the turn of the millennium, and is estimated to be over 64 years in 2020.

Chart and table of Germany life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

Over the past 160 years, life expectancy (from birth) in the United States has risen from 39.4 years in 1860, to 78.9 years in 2020. One of the major reasons for the overall increase of life expectancy in the last two centuries is the fact that the infant and child mortality rates have decreased by so much during this time. Medical advancements, fewer wars and improved living standards also mean that people are living longer than they did in previous centuries.

Despite this overall increase, the life expectancy dropped three times since 1860; from 1865 to 1870 during the American Civil War, from 1915 to 1920 during the First World War and following Spanish Flu epidemic, and it has dropped again between 2015 and now. The reason for the most recent drop in life expectancy is not a result of any specific event, but has been attributed to negative societal trends, such as unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, high medical costs, and increasing rates of suicide and drug use.

Chart and table of Hong Kong life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

Chart and table of Sweden life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

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.

Chart and table of Pakistan life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

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 2021, life expectancy at birth in Europe was 77 years, compared with the high of 79.1 years in 2019, and the low of 62.8 in 1950 and 1951. During this time period, life expectancy increased fastest between the 1950s and mid 1960s, with the rate of improvement slowing since then.

In 2023, the average life expectancy at birth for men and women in South Korea was estimated to stand at 81.2 years and 87.2 years, respectively. Life expectancy at birth was particular low for men at the start of the 1950s due to the Korean War (1950-1953), and lagged 10 to 15 years behind women for decades. While women still have a longer life expectancy, the gap has been increasingly getting smaller, down to a difference of around six years in the 2020s. By the year 2100, it is estimated that life expectancy at birth for Korean women will have risen to 96 years, while their male counterparts are expected to reach 90.2 years old.

Chart and table of Taiwan life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

In 1880, the average person born in the area of modern-day South Korea could expect to live to just under the age of 26, a figure which would remain below thirty until the 1920s. Life expectancy would fall to its lowest level of just 24 years in 1920, however, as the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic would spread through the country, resulting in an estimated 200,000 deaths across the Korean peninsula. Life expectancy would begin to rise in the 1920s, however, as development programs by the Japanese colonial administration would see economic growth and access to healthcare improve greatly in the region. The 1940s and 1950s would see a slowing, then a reversal to this growth though, as the final years of the Second World War, and later the 1950 Korean War, would see significant destruction and fatalities in the country.

Following the end of the Korean War with the 1953 armistice, life expectancy would begin to climb again in the newly-established South Korea, as the country would begin to rapidly modernize and improve access to healthcare and nutrition, raising standards of living and cutting child mortality rates throughout the country. As a result, life expectancy would rise from just under 47 years in 1950, to over 75 years by the turn of the century. This rise in life expectancy has continued steadily into the 21st century, and as a result, in 2020, it is estimated that the average person born in South Korea will live to just under the age of 83 years, one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Aftar a drop of 0.6 years between 2019 and 2022, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany's life expectancy at birth returned to it's pre-pandemic level in 2023, and is projected to reach almost 82 years in 2025. In 2025, it is estimated that women in Germany have a life exectancy 4.6 years higher than men, which is a slightly narrower margin than the difference of almost seven years throughout the 1990s.

Life expectancy in China was just 32 in the year 1850, and over the course of the next 170 years, it is expected to more than double to 76.6 years in 2020. Between 1850 and 1950, finding reliable data proved difficult for anthropologists, however some events, such as the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt in the nineteenth century did reduce life expectancy by a few years, and also the Chinese Civil War and Second World War in the first half of the twentieth century. In the second half of the 1900s, Chinese life expectancy increased greatly, as the country became more industrialized and the standard of living increased.

Chart and table of Ireland life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

In the observed period, the average life expectancy increased in Poland. The average life expectancy for women in 2023 was 82 years. For comparison, in 1950, women lived 20 years shorter on average. Statistically, women live longer than men in Poland.

Life expectancy in Russia was 29.6 in the year 1845, and over the course of the next 175 years, it is expected to have increased to 72.3 years by 2020. Generally speaking, Russian life expectancy has increased over this 175 year period, however events such as the World Wars, Russian Revolution and a series of famines caused fluctuations before the mid-twentieth century, where the rate fluctuated sporadically. Between 1945 and 1950, Russian life expectancy more than doubled in this five year period, and it then proceeded to increase until the 1970s, when it then began to fall again. Between 1970 and 2005, the number fell from 68.5 to 65, before it then grew again in more recent years.