In 2023, the average life expectancy for those born in more developed countries was 75 years for men and 82 years for women. On the other hand, the respective numbers for men and women born in the least developed countries were 63 and 67 years.

Improved health care has lead to higher life expectancy

Life expectancy is the measure of how long a person is expected to live. Life expectancy varies worldwide and involves many factors such as diet, gender, and environment. As medical care has improved over the years, life expectancy has increased worldwide. Introduction to health care such as vaccines has significantly improved the lives of millions of people worldwide. The average worldwide life expectancy at birth has steadily increased since 2007, but dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Life expectancy worldwide

More developed countries tend to have higher life expectancies, for a multitude of reasons. Health care infrastructure and quality of life tend to be higher in more developed countries, as is access to clean water and food. Africa was the continent that had the lowest life expectancy for both men and women in 2023, while Oceania had the highest for men and Europe and Oceania had the highest for women.

From World Bank data, shows the life expectancy in each of the five Lower Mekong countries, recorded every ten years from 1963 to 2013 (i.e. six data points for each country). Collated for an interactive visualization on the OD Mekong Social development page (https://opendevelopmentmekong.net/topics/social-development/).

Countries from Natural Earth 50M scale data with a Human Development Index attribute, repeated for each of the following years: 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, & 2013, to enable time-series display using the YEAR attribute. The Human Development Index measures achievement in 3 areas of human development: long life, good education and income. Specifically, the index is computed using life expectancy at birth, Mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and gross national income (GNI) per capita (PPP $). The United Nations categorizes the HDI values into 4 groups. In 2013 these groups were defined by the following HDI values: Very High: 0.736 and higher High: 0.615 to 0.735 Medium: 0.494 to 0.614 Low: 0.493 and lower

Human Development Index attributes are from The World Bank: HDRO calculations based on data from UNDESA (2013a), Barro and Lee (2013), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2013), UN Statistics Division (2014), World Bank (2014) and IMF (2014).

Global Economic, Environmental, Health, and Social indicators Ready for Analysis

📝 Description

This comprehensive dataset merges global economic, environmental, technological, and human development indicators from 2000 to 2020. Sourced and transformed from multiple public datasets via Google BigQuery, it is designed for advanced exploratory data analysis, machine learning, policy modeling, and sustainability research.

Curated by combining and transforming data from the Google BigQuery Public Data program, this dataset offers a harmonized view of global development across more than 40 key indicators spanning over two decades (2000–2020). It supports research across multiple domains such as:

• Economic Growth
• Climate Sustainability
• Digital Transformation
• Public Health
• Human Development
• Resilience and Governance

📅 Temporal Coverage

• Years: 2000–2020

• Includes calculated features:

  • years_since_2000
  • years_since_century
  • is_pandemic_period (binary indicator for pandemic periods)

🌍 Geographic Scope

• Countries: Global (identified by ISO country codes)
• Regions and Income Groups included for aggregated analysis

📊 Key Feature Groups

• Economic Indicators:

  • GDP (USD), GDP per capita
  • FDI, inflation, unemployment, economic growth index

• Environmental Indicators:

  • CO₂ emissions, renewable energy use
  • Forest area, green transition score, CO₂ intensity

• Technology & Connectivity:

  • Internet usage, mobile subscriptions
  • Digital readiness score, digital connectivity index

• Health & Education:

  • Life expectancy, child mortality
  • School enrollment, healthcare capacity, health development ratio

• Governance & Resilience:

  • Governance quality, global resilience
  • Human development composite, ecological preservation

🔍 Use Cases

• Trend analysis over time
• Country-level comparisons
• Modeling development outcomes
• Predictive analytics on sustainability or human development
• Correlation and clustering across multiple indicators

⚠️ Note on Missing Region and Income Group Data

Approximately 18% of the entries in the region and income_group columns are null. This is primarily due to the inclusion of aggregate regions (e.g., Arab World, East Asia & Pacific, Africa Eastern and Southern) and non-country classifications (e.g., Early-demographic dividend, Central Europe and the Baltics). These entries represent groups of countries with diverse income levels and geographic characteristics, making it inappropriate or misleading to assign a single region or income classification. In some cases, the data source may have intentionally left these fields blank to avoid oversimplification or due to a lack of standardized classification.

📋 Column Descriptions

• year: Year of the recorded data, representing a time series for each country.
• country_code: Unique code assigned to each country (ISO-3166 standard).
• country_name: Name of the country corresponding to the data.
• region: Geographical region of the country (e.g., Africa, Asia, Europe).
• income_group: Income classification based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (low, lower-middle, upper-middle, high income).
• currency_unit: Currency used in the country (e.g., USD, EUR).
• gdp_usd: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in USD (millions or billions).
• population: Total population of the country for the given year.
• gdp_per_capita: GDP divided by population (economic output per person).
• inflation_rate: Annual rate of inflation (price level rise).
• unemployment_rate: Percentage of the labor force unemployed but seeking employment.
• fdi_pct_gdp: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a percentage of GDP.
• co2_emissions_kt: Total CO₂ emissions in kilotons (kt).
• energy_use_per_capita: Energy consumption per person (kWh).
• renewable_energy_pct: Percentage of energy consumption from renewable sources.
• forest_area_pct: Percentage of total land area covered by forests.
• electricity_access_pct: Percentage of the population with access to electricity.
• life_expectancy: Average life expectancy at birth.
• child_mortality: Deaths of children under 5 per 1,000 live births.
• school_enrollment_secondary: Percentage of population enrolled in secondary education.
• health_expenditure_pct_gdp: Percentage of GDP spent on healthcare.
• hospital_beds_per_1000: Hospital beds per 1,000 people.
• physicians_per_1000: Physicians (doctors) per 1,000 people.
• internet_usage_pct: Percentage of population with internet access.
• **mobile_subscriptions_per_10...

Countries from Natural Earth 50M scale data with a Human Development Index attribute for each of the following years: 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2015, & 2017. The Human Development Index measures achievement in 3 areas of human development: long life, good education and income. Specifically, the index is computed using life expectancy at birth, Mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and gross national income (GNI) per capita (PPP $). The United Nations categorizes the HDI values into 4 groups. In 2013 these groups were defined by the following HDI values: Very High: 0.736 and higher High: 0.615 to 0.735 Medium: 0.494 to 0.614 Low: 0.493 and lower

In 2015 & 2017 these groups were defined by the following HDI values: Very High: 0.800 and higher High: 0.700 to 0.799 Medium: 0.550 to 0.699 Low: 0.549 and lower

Human Development Index attributes are from The World Bank: HDRO calculations based on data from UNDESA (2013a), Barro and Lee (2013), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2013), UN Statistics Division(2014), World Bank (2014) and IMF (2014). 2015 & 2017 values source: HDRO calculations based on data from UNDESA (2017a), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2018), United Nations Statistics Division (2018b), World Bank (2018b), Barro and Lee (2016) and IMF (2018).

Population data are from (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects, (2) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Report (various years), (3) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (4) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (5) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme, and (6) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database.