Which has higher life expectancy, Japan or South Korea?

Japan, at 84.71 years against 84.33 years in South Korea as of 2023.

How many years of comparable data are there for Japan and South Korea?

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.

Japan vs South Korea: Life expectancy

Japan

84.71 years

in 2023

South Korea

84.33 years

in 2023

Japan rank

4th

South Korea rank

5th

Life expectancy over time

Japan
South Korea

How they compare

Japan currently reports 84.71 years against 84.33 years in South Korea, a difference of 0.38 years.

Across all 74 years both countries report, Japan has been ahead every year.

Japan ranks 4th and South Korea ranks 5th of 236 countries.

Japan has averaged higher in every one of the 8 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Japan	South Korea	Difference	Ahead
1950s	64.23 years	42.69 years	21.54 years	Japan
1960s	70.1 years	56.79 years	13.31 years	Japan
1970s	74.16 years	64.14 years	10.02 years	Japan
1980s	77.66 years	68.15 years	9.51 years	Japan
1990s	79.87 years	73.28 years	6.59 years	Japan
2000s	82.1 years	78.33 years	3.77 years	Japan
2010s	83.66 years	82.32 years	1.35 years	Japan
2020s	84.5 years	83.65 years	0.851 years	Japan

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher life expectancy, Japan or South Korea?: Japan, at 84.71 years against 84.33 years in South Korea as of 2023.
What is the difference in life expectancy between Japan and South Korea?: 0.38 years, with Japan ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Japan and South Korea?: 74 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2023.
How do Japan and South Korea rank globally for life expectancy?: Japan ranks 4th and South Korea ranks 5th 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.