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50 years of life expectancy

Half a century of gains on every continent — interrupted by AIDS, transitions and a pandemic, but rarely reversed for long.

4 charts · 3 min read · Data refreshed 11 Sep 2026

World life expectancy at birth, weighted by population, was 59.7 yrs in 1974 and 73.5 yrs in 2024.

52 of 217 countries with data reached 80 years or more in 2024; the highest is Monaco at 86.5 yrs.

01 · World map

Life expectancy at birth

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2024
217 countries
Life expectancy, 2024World map of Life expectancy (2024) for 217 countries, from 28.6 yrs to 86.5 yrs.Fiji: 67.5 yrsTanzania: 67.2 yrsW. Sahara: —Canada: 82.1 yrsUnited States: 78.9 yrsKazakhstan: 74.5 yrsUzbekistan: 72.5 yrsPapua New Guinea: 66.3 yrsIndonesia: 71.3 yrsArgentina: 77.5 yrsChile: 81.4 yrsDR Congo: 62.1 yrsSomalia: 59.0 yrsKenya: 63.8 yrsSudan: 66.5 yrsChad: 55.2 yrsHaiti: 65.1 yrsDominican Republic: 73.9 yrsRussia: 73.4 yrsBahamas: 74.7 yrsFalkland Is.: —Norway: 83.2 yrsGreenland: 70.3 yrsFr. S. Antarctic Lands: —Timor-Leste: 67.9 yrsSouth Africa: 66.3 yrsLesotho: 57.8 yrsMexico: 75.3 yrsUruguay: 78.3 yrsBrazil: 76.0 yrsBolivia: 68.7 yrsPeru: 77.9 yrsColombia: 77.9 yrsPanama: 79.8 yrsCosta Rica: 81.0 yrsNicaragua: 75.1 yrsHonduras: 73.0 yrsEl Salvador: 72.3 yrsGuatemala: 72.7 yrsBelize: 73.7 yrsVenezuela: 72.7 yrsGuyana: 70.3 yrsSuriname: 73.8 yrsFrance: 83.0 yrsEcuador: 77.6 yrsPuerto Rico: 81.9 yrsJamaica: 71.6 yrsCuba: 78.3 yrsZimbabwe: 63.1 yrsBotswana: 69.3 yrsNamibia: 67.5 yrsSenegal: 68.9 yrsMali: 60.7 yrsMauritania: 68.7 yrsBenin: 61.0 yrsNiger: 61.4 yrsNigeria: 54.6 yrsCameroon: 64.0 yrsTogo: 62.9 yrsGhana: 65.7 yrsCôte d'Ivoire: 62.1 yrsGuinea: 60.9 yrsGuinea-Bissau: 64.3 yrsLiberia: 62.3 yrsSierra Leone: 62.0 yrsBurkina Faso: 61.3 yrsCentral African Republic: 57.7 yrsRepublic of the Congo: 66.0 yrsGabon: 68.5 yrsEquatorial Guinea: 63.9 yrsZambia: 66.5 yrsMalawi: 67.6 yrsMozambique: 63.8 yrsEswatini: 64.3 yrsAngola: 64.8 yrsBurundi: 63.8 yrsIsrael: 83.2 yrsLebanon: 77.9 yrsMadagascar: 63.8 yrsPalestine: 69.2 yrsGambia: 66.1 yrsTunisia: 76.7 yrsAlgeria: 76.5 yrsJordan: 78.0 yrsUnited Arab Emirates: 83.1 yrsQatar: 82.5 yrsKuwait: 84.6 yrsIraq: 72.4 yrsOman: 80.2 yrsVanuatu: 71.7 yrsCambodia: 70.8 yrsThailand: 76.6 yrsLaos: 69.2 yrsMyanmar: 67.1 yrsVietnam: 74.7 yrsNorth Korea: 73.7 yrsSouth Korea: 83.6 yrsMongolia: 72.4 yrsIndia: 72.2 yrsBangladesh: 74.9 yrsBhutan: 73.3 yrsNepal: 70.6 yrsPakistan: 67.8 yrsAfghanistan: 66.3 yrsTajikistan: 71.9 yrsKyrgyzstan: 72.4 yrsTurkmenistan: 70.2 yrsIran: 77.9 yrsSyria: 72.6 yrsArmenia: 78.3 yrsSweden: 84.1 yrsBelarus: 74.4 yrsUkraine: 74.7 yrsPoland: 78.4 yrsAustria: 82.0 yrsHungary: 76.7 yrsMoldova: 71.3 yrsRomania: 76.5 yrsLithuania: 77.2 yrsLatvia: 76.4 yrsEstonia: 79.3 yrsGermany: 80.8 yrsBulgaria: 75.8 yrsGreece: 81.8 yrsTürkiye: 77.4 yrsAlbania: 79.8 yrsCroatia: 78.9 yrsSwitzerland: 84.4 yrsLuxembourg: 83.2 yrsBelgium: 82.3 yrsNetherlands: 82.0 yrsPortugal: 82.4 yrsSpain: 83.9 yrsIreland: 83.0 yrsNew Caledonia: 78.9 yrsSolomon Islands: 70.7 yrsNew Zealand: 82.0 yrsAustralia: 83.1 yrsSri Lanka: 77.7 yrsChina: 78.0 yrsTaiwan: —Italy: 84.0 yrsDenmark: 82.3 yrsUnited Kingdom: 81.4 yrsIceland: 82.8 yrsAzerbaijan: 74.6 yrsGeorgia: 74.7 yrsPhilippines: 69.9 yrsMalaysia: 76.8 yrsBrunei: 75.5 yrsSlovenia: 82.3 yrsFinland: 82.3 yrsSlovakia: 78.4 yrsCzechia: 80.0 yrsEritrea: 68.9 yrsJapan: 84.0 yrsParaguay: 74.0 yrsYemen: 69.4 yrsSaudi Arabia: 79.0 yrsN. Cyprus: —Cyprus: 81.8 yrsMorocco: 75.5 yrsEgypt: 71.8 yrsLibya: 71.1 yrsEthiopia: 67.6 yrsDjibouti: 66.2 yrsSomaliland: —Uganda: 68.5 yrsRwanda: 68.0 yrsBosnia and Herzegovina: 78.0 yrsNorth Macedonia: 76.6 yrsSerbia: 76.0 yrsMontenegro: 77.9 yrsKosovo: 78.2 yrsTrinidad and Tobago: 73.6 yrsSouth Sudan: 57.7 yrs
Life expectancy, 2024
  • 28.6 yrs – 56.7 yrs
  • 56.7 yrs – 64.4 yrs
  • 64.4 yrs – 69.4 yrs
  • 69.4 yrs – 72.8 yrs
  • 72.8 yrs – 77.0 yrs
  • 77.0 yrs – 86.5 yrs
  • No data
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Drag the year slider or press play. Hatched = no data.

Source: World Bank — WDI · SP.DYN.LE00.IN · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

02 · Trend

Life expectancy by group

Population-weighted mean across 215–217 countries per year, computed by CountryAtlas from country values.

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  • World
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • South Asia
  • High income
Life expectancy4 series from 1974 to 2024: World, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, High income.19801990200020102020405060708090

4 series from 1974 to 2024: World, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, High income.

Source: World Bank — WDI · SP.DYN.LE00.IN · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

03 · Selected countries

Six countries, fifty years

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  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • China
  • India
  • Nigeria
  • United States
Life expectancy6 series from 1974 to 2024: Japan, South Korea, China, India, Nigeria, United States.19801990200020102020406080

6 series from 1974 to 2024: Japan, South Korea, China, India, Nigeria, United States.

Source: World Bank — WDI · SP.DYN.LE00.IN · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

04 · Ranking, 2024

Longest lives

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Sources

Every figure on this page is computed from the CountryAtlas snapshot 20260911T072322Z (built 11 Sep 2026). Values carry the licence of their source; the compilation is CC BY 4.0.

World Bank

Indicators used

How this story is built

A story is a declarative template: a list of blocks (world map by year, aggregate trend, country lines, a ranking) bound to indicators. Sentences are templates filled with numbers computed server-side from exactly the payloads charted below; when a value is missing the sentence is omitted rather than guessed.

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