Which has higher life expectancy, Lesotho or Nigeria?

Lesotho, at 57.37 years against 54.46 years in Nigeria as of 2023.

What is the difference in life expectancy between Lesotho and Nigeria?

2.91 years, with Lesotho ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Lesotho and Nigeria?

74 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2023.

Where does this data come from?

Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Life expectancy. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Lesotho vs Nigeria: Life expectancy

Lesotho

57.37 years

in 2023

Nigeria

54.46 years

in 2023

Lesotho rank

234th

Nigeria rank

236th

Life expectancy over time

Lesotho
Nigeria

How they compare

Lesotho currently reports 57.37 years against 54.46 years in Nigeria, a difference of 2.91 years.

That makes Lesotho's figure about 1.1 times Nigeria's.

The two have swapped places 2 times across 74 shared years of data; in 1950 it was Lesotho ahead.

Lesotho ranks 234th and Nigeria ranks 236th of 236 countries.

Across the 8 decades both report, Lesotho averaged higher in 6 and Nigeria in 2.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Lesotho	Nigeria	Difference	Ahead
1950s	47.49 years	36.27 years	11.22 years	Lesotho
1960s	50.44 years	37.97 years	12.48 years	Lesotho
1970s	53.41 years	42.94 years	10.47 years	Lesotho
1980s	58.65 years	46.12 years	12.53 years	Lesotho
1990s	56 years	45.88 years	10.13 years	Lesotho
2000s	45.07 years	49.21 years	4.14 years	Nigeria
2010s	51 years	52.05 years	1.04 years	Nigeria
2020s	55.88 years	53.77 years	2.11 years	Lesotho

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher life expectancy, Lesotho or Nigeria?: Lesotho, at 57.37 years against 54.46 years in Nigeria as of 2023.
What is the difference in life expectancy between Lesotho and Nigeria?: 2.91 years, with Lesotho ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Lesotho and Nigeria?: 74 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2023.
How do Lesotho and Nigeria rank globally for life expectancy?: Lesotho ranks 234th and Nigeria ranks 236th of 236 countries.
Where does this data come from?: Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Life expectancy. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator: Life expectancy
Unit: years
Source: Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 236 places, 19,452 data points, 1543–2023
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Period life expectancy is the number of years the average person born in a certain year would live if they experienced the same chances of dying at each age as people did that year.