Life expectancy at birth
Number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality were to stay the same throughout its life.
- World average (population-weighted)
- 73.5 yrs
- across 217 countries, 2024
- Latest observation
- 2024
- Source updated
- 13 Jul 2026
- CountryAtlas refreshed
- 11 Sep 2026
- Snapshot 20260911T072322Z
World map
One value per country for the selected year. Hatched = no data.
- 54.6 yrs – 66.5 yrs
- 66.5 yrs – 71.3 yrs
- 71.3 yrs – 74.7 yrs
- 74.7 yrs – 77.9 yrs
- 77.9 yrs – 82.0 yrs
- 82.0 yrs – 86.5 yrs
- No data
Trend
Aggregate across the countries of a group, year by year. Computed by CountryAtlas from country values — no published aggregate is used.
Not enough countries to aggregate this indicator for World.
Highest and lowest
The five leaders and the five trailing countries, 2024.
Top 5
- 86.5 yrs
- 85.8 yrs
- 85.4 yrs
- 84.6 yrs
- 84.4 yrs
Source: World Bank — WDI · SP.DYN.LE00.IN
Bottom 5
- 213Lesotho57.8 yrs
- 214South Sudan57.7 yrs
- 57.7 yrs
- 216Chad55.2 yrs
- 217Nigeria54.6 yrs
Source: World Bank — WDI · SP.DYN.LE00.IN
Compare countries
Pick up to five countries. Defaults to the three largest economies with data.
Definition
- Definition
- Number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality were to stay the same throughout its life.
- Unit
- years (yrs)
- Frequency
- Annual
- Aggregation
- none · Higher is better
- Valid range
- 20 – 100
Sources & provenance
Every value on this page comes from one of these series, chosen per country by priority.
- Priority #1Open at source217 countries · 14,071 obs. · → 2024 · CC BY 4.0
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. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations (UN), uri: UN Population Division; Statistical databases and publications from national statistical offices, National Statistical Offices (NSOs), note: Derived from male and female life expectancy at birth from sources such as statistical databases and publications from national statistical offices.; Demographic Statistics, Eurostat (ESTAT), note: Derived from male and female life expectancy at birth from sources such as Eurostat: Demographic Statistics.
- Priority #2Open at source185 countries · 4,070 obs. · → 2021 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
Life expectancy at birth (years)
- Priority #3Open at source46 countries · 1,739 obs. · → 2024 · CC BY 4.0
Eurostat demo_mlexpec — Life expectancy by age and sex
Series-level selection: for each country the whole series comes from the highest-priority source that has any non-forecast value for it. If a lower-priority source is more than three years fresher, the freshest source wins instead. Non-chosen values are kept as alternatives, never discarded.
Countries without data
1 of 218 countries have no value for 2024.
Typical reasons: the source does not survey small territories or micro-states; the statistical office reports with a lag of one to three years; the series is only compiled for member countries of the source organisation (OECD, EU, Eurostat); or a value exists but failed validation and is quarantined rather than shown.
Downloads & API
Every observation for this indicator, all countries and years, with provenance columns.
API example
One country, full history. Replace CAN by any ISO3 code or slug.
curl -s "https://www.countryatlas.co/api/v1/series?country=CAN&indicator=life-expectancy" | jq '.series[0] | {country: .country.name, unit, last: .stats.last, source: .provenance.source_name}'