Life expectancy by country

The period life expectancy at birth, in a given year.

Countries reporting

Highest

84.5 years

Japan

Lowest

62.3 years

South Africa

Median

80.7 years

Years covered

1960–2022

Data points

2,767

What the numbers show

Life expectancy is currently reported for 47 countries. The highest value is 84.5 years in Japan; the lowest is 62.3 years in South Africa.

The median across all reporting countries is 80.7 years, and the mean is 78.25 years.

Over the past decade 31 countries rose and 15 fell. The largest increase was in Russia (up 6.4%), and the largest decrease in Bulgaria (down 3.8%).

Life expectancy: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Japan	84.5 years	2021	up 2.2%	rising
2	Switzerland	83.9 years	2021	up 1.3%	rising
3	South Korea	83.6 years	2021	up 3.7%	rising
4	Australia	83.3 years	2021	up 1.7%	rising
4	Spain	83.3 years	2021	up 0.8%	rising
6	Norway	83.2 years	2021	up 2.2%	rising
6	Iceland	83.2 years	2021	up 1.0%	rising
8	Sweden	83.1 years	2021	up 1.5%	rising
9	Israel	82.9 years	2022	up 1.3%	rising
10	Italy	82.7 years	2021	up 0.4%	rising
12	France	82.4 years	2021	up 0.1%	rising
14	New Zealand	82.3 years	2021	up 1.6%	rising
15	Finland	81.9 years	2021	up 1.6%	rising
15	Belgium	81.9 years	2021	up 1.5%	rising
17	Canada	81.6 years	2021	unchanged	rising
18	Portugal	81.5 years	2021	up 1.0%	rising
18	Denmark	81.5 years	2021	up 2.0%	rising
20	Netherlands	81.4 years	2021	up 0.1%	rising
21	Austria	81.3 years	2021	up 0.2%	rising
22	Chile	81.2 years	2022	up 2.5%	rising
23	United Kingdom	81 years	2020	up 0.5%	rising
24	Costa Rica	80.9 years	2022	up 1.9%	rising
25	Germany	80.8 years	2021	up 0.2%	rising
26	Slovenia	80.7 years	2021	up 0.7%	rising
27	Greece	80.2 years	2021	down 0.7%	rising
28	Turkey	78.6 years	2019	up 6.1%	rising
29	China	78.2 years	2022	up 3.0%	rising
30	Czechia	77.2 years	2021	down 1.0%	rising
30	Estonia	77.2 years	2021	up 0.8%	rising
32	Colombia	76.9 years	2022	up 2.9%	rising
33	Croatia	76.7 years	2021	down 0.6%	flat
34	United States	76.4 years	2021	down 2.9%	rising
35	Poland	75.5 years	2021	down 1.7%	rising
36	Mexico	75.4 years	2021	up 0.7%	rising
36	Argentina	75.4 years	2022	down 0.9%	rising
38	Slovakia	74.6 years	2021	down 2.0%	rising
39	Hungary	74.3 years	2021	down 1.1%	rising
40	Lithuania	74.2 years	2021	up 0.7%	rising
41	Russia	73.2 years	2019	up 6.4%	flat
42	Latvia	73.1 years	2021	down 1.1%	rising
43	Romania	72.8 years	2021	down 2.2%	rising
43	Brazil	72.8 years	2022	down 0.7%	rising
45	Peru	72.4 years	2022	down 2.3%	rising
46	Bulgaria	71.4 years	2021	down 3.8%	rising
47	Indonesia	67.6 years	2022	down 1.7%	rising
48	India	67.2 years	2022	down 0.3%	rising
49	South Africa	62.3 years	2022	up 2.6%	rising

About this data

Indicator: Life expectancy
Unit: years
Source: OECD (2023) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 49 places, 2,767 data points, 1960–2022
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

The period life expectancy at birth, in a given year.