Life Expectancy by Country

What is the life expectancy by country right now?

A newborn in Japan enters a world where reaching 84 is normal. A newborn in Chad faces odds that make 60 a stretch. That gulf is not genetic. It is everything that happens between a first breath and a last one.

The main drivers are:

• Infant and child mortality. Nations where death rates before age 5 run high drag their average down hard. Where 1 in 20 children dies before a first birthday, a high life expectancy is mathematically impossible.
• Infectious disease burden. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases still kill in large volumes across sub-Saharan Africa. These are preventable. They are treatable. In high-income nations they are rare.
• Healthcare access and quality. Universal health coverage, hospital density and emergency response times vary enormously.
• Nutrition, sanitation and clean water. Sewage systems and reliable food supply are not universal.

These factors compound. A child in a poor, conflict-affected nation faces higher risks at every age, not just infancy.

Which nations have the longest life expectancy?

The places at the top share several features: universal or near-universal healthcare, low infant mortality, high income and strong public health infrastructure.

Japan typically leads the world at 84 to 85 years. Low rates of heart disease and homicide, a diet low in processed food and near-universal health coverage all contribute.

Switzerland and Singapore sit at 84 or above. Both run excellent healthcare systems and record very low death rates from preventable causes.

Australia, Spain, Italy, South Korea and Sweden all sit at or above 83 years in the latest World Health Organization data.

What these places have in common: very low child mortality, high healthcare spending as a share of GDP and strong social safety nets. None of them reached 84 by accident.

Which nations have the shortest life expectancy?

The lowest figures cluster in sub-Saharan Africa. Several nations sit below 60 years.

Chad, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and the Central African Republic all fall in this range. The causes are consistent: high maternal and child mortality, HIV/AIDS prevalence, malaria and weak health systems.

Conflict zones also appear at the bottom. Afghanistan, Yemen and South Sudan have seen life expectancy fall because of war, displacement and collapsed health infrastructure.

A crucial point: these figures are at birth. A person who reaches age 5 in these places has a much higher remaining life expectancy than the at-birth figure suggests. Infant and child mortality drag the average down. The life expectancy at birth vs at 65 article explains this in detail.

Full table: life expectancy at birth by selected nations

The table below shows life expectancy at birth for a selection of places. Figures come from the WHO World Health Statistics 2025 and the UN World Population Prospects 2024. Differences of 1 to 2 years between sources are normal. See the note below the table.

Why the table is shorter than a full UN list: The places shown represent the extremes and the most-searched ones. A full UN table contains more than 200 rows. If your nation is not here, check the WHO or UN data directly. Links in the next section.

How to use these figures in your life clock settings

A life clock shows the proportion of an expected lifespan you have already lived. To get a meaningful number, you need the right life expectancy input.

Use your own nation's figure, not a global average. A user in Japan should use 84.5. A user in Nigeria should use 57.9. Using the wrong figure gives a misleading picture.

The life clock allows a custom life expectancy input. That is deliberate. The default is set to a rough global average, but change it to match your location's data.

A note for expats and long-term residents: If you have lived most of your life in one place but now live in another, use the figure for where you grew up. Early-life conditions have a stronger effect on life expectancy than later moves.

What if your nation is not in the table above? Use the WHO or UN data finder. Both organisations publish searchable databases. The WHO World Health Statistics report updates annually. The UN World Population Prospects updates every two years.

Why do WHO and UN life expectancy figures disagree?

Japan appears as 84.5 here, 84.3 in another source and 85.1 in a third. None of them is wrong. The differences come from:

• Different data years. WHO publishes annually. UN publishes biennially. A figure from 2023 will differ from one from 2025.
• Different calculation methods. WHO uses period life expectancy (current death rates only). UN also provides cohort estimates that project future mortality improvements. Period figures are usually lower.
• Different population definitions. Some sources include non-resident nationals. Some exclude them. Some adjust for census undercounts.
• Rounding conventions. A value of 84.52 might appear as 84.5 or 85 depending on the source's rounding rule.

Normal difference range: 1 to 2 years between WHO and UN for the same place. If you see a 5-year gap, check whether one source is using healthy life expectancy instead of total life expectancy. The healthy life expectancy vs life expectancy article explains that distinction.

What to do: Pick one authoritative source (WHO or UN) and use their most recent figure consistently. Do not mix figures from different years or organisations.