Which has higher life expectancy, Germany or United Kingdom?

Germany, at 81.38 years against 81.3 years in United Kingdom as of 2023.

What is the difference in life expectancy between Germany and United Kingdom?

0.08 years, with Germany ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Germany and United Kingdom?

83 years are reported by both, from 1875 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.

Germany vs United Kingdom: Life expectancy

Germany

81.38 years

in 2023

United Kingdom

81.3 years

in 2023

Germany rank

45th

United Kingdom rank

46th

Life expectancy over time

Germany
United Kingdom

How they compare

Germany currently reports 81.38 years against 81.3 years in United Kingdom, a difference of 0.08 years.

The two have swapped places 7 times across 83 shared years of data; in 1875 it was United Kingdom ahead.

Germany ranks 45th and United Kingdom ranks 46th of 236 countries.

Across the 16 decades both report, Germany averaged higher in 2 and United Kingdom in 14.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Germany	United Kingdom	Difference	Ahead
1870s	38.37 years	41.45 years	3.08 years	United Kingdom
1880s	39.44 years	44.57 years	5.13 years	United Kingdom
1890s	42.38 years	45.41 years	3.03 years	United Kingdom
1900s	45.45 years	49.92 years	4.47 years	United Kingdom
1910s	44.76 years	51.22 years	6.45 years	United Kingdom
1920s	57.42 years	58.42 years	1 years	United Kingdom
1930s	61.5 years	61.96 years	0.46 years	United Kingdom
1940s	60.51 years	66.24 years	5.73 years	United Kingdom
1950s	68.12 years	69.9 years	1.77 years	United Kingdom
1960s	70.32 years	71.33 years	1.01 years	United Kingdom
1970s	71.74 years	72.53 years	0.7912 years	United Kingdom
1980s	74.34 years	74.56 years	0.2261 years	United Kingdom
1990s	76.53 years	76.61 years	0.0817 years	United Kingdom
2000s	79.09 years	78.92 years	0.1655 years	Germany
2010s	80.67 years	80.98 years	0.3137 years	United Kingdom
2020s	81.02 years	80.87 years	0.1494 years	Germany

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher life expectancy, Germany or United Kingdom?: Germany, at 81.38 years against 81.3 years in United Kingdom as of 2023.
What is the difference in life expectancy between Germany and United Kingdom?: 0.08 years, with Germany ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Germany and United Kingdom?: 83 years are reported by both, from 1875 to 2023.
How do Germany and United Kingdom rank globally for life expectancy?: Germany ranks 45th and United Kingdom ranks 46th 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.