Which has higher life expectancy, Australia or Switzerland?

Switzerland, at 83.95 years against 83.92 years in Australia as of 2023.

What is the difference in life expectancy between Australia and Switzerland?

0.03 years, with Switzerland ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Australia and Switzerland?

106 years are reported by both, from 1885 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.

Australia vs Switzerland: Life expectancy

Australia

83.92 years

in 2023

Switzerland

83.95 years

in 2023

Australia rank

10th

Switzerland rank

9th

Life expectancy over time

Australia
Switzerland

How they compare

Switzerland currently reports 83.95 years against 83.92 years in Australia, a difference of 0.03 years.

The two have swapped places 7 times across 106 shared years of data; in 1885 it was Australia ahead.

Australia ranks 10th and Switzerland ranks 9th of 236 countries.

Across the 14 decades both report, Australia averaged higher in 7 and Switzerland in 7.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Australia	Switzerland	Difference	Ahead
1880s	49.05 years	43.92 years	5.13 years	Australia
1890s	52.95 years	46.93 years	6.02 years	Australia
1900s	57 years	49.69 years	7.31 years	Australia
1920s	62.54 years	59.65 years	2.89 years	Australia
1930s	65.35 years	62.56 years	2.79 years	Australia
1940s	67.47 years	65.77 years	1.7 years	Australia
1950s	69.82 years	70.02 years	0.2071 years	Switzerland
1960s	70.87 years	72.09 years	1.21 years	Switzerland
1970s	72.49 years	74.46 years	1.97 years	Switzerland
1980s	75.51 years	76.67 years	1.15 years	Switzerland
1990s	78.14 years	78.58 years	0.4376 years	Switzerland
2000s	80.76 years	81.06 years	0.2976 years	Switzerland
2010s	82.61 years	83.03 years	0.4207 years	Switzerland
2020s	83.48 years	83.47 years	0.0132 years	Australia

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher life expectancy, Australia or Switzerland?: Switzerland, at 83.95 years against 83.92 years in Australia as of 2023.
What is the difference in life expectancy between Australia and Switzerland?: 0.03 years, with Switzerland ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Australia and Switzerland?: 106 years are reported by both, from 1885 to 2023.
How do Australia and Switzerland rank globally for life expectancy?: Australia ranks 10th and Switzerland ranks 9th 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: 06 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.