World data · 194 countries · updated October 2026

Life expectancy by country

Life expectancy at birth for 194 countries, ranked — including what it implies for how long today's children will live.

The short answer

Monaco leads the 194 countries ranked here on life expectancy at birth at 87 years, followed by San Marino at 86 years and Japan at 85 years. The median country is Belarus at 75 years, against a world average of 73 years.

#1 87 years Monaco Europe & Central Asia #2 86 years San Marino Europe & Central Asia #3 85 years Japan East Asia & Pacific Median 75 years Belarus The middle of 194

World 73 years World average Population-weighted

What this measures

Life expectancy at birth, from UN World Population Prospects.

What it does not

It is a snapshot of current mortality, not a forecast. A child born today will very probably live longer than the figure for their country implies, because mortality keeps improving.

The bottom of the table

Nigeria 54 years

Chad 56 years

Central African Republic 58 years

South Sudan 58 years

Lesotho 59 years

Bars are scaled across the full observed range (54 years to 87 years), not to 100%, so the real spread is visible.

How the values are spread

Where the 194 countries fall

The range from 54 years to 87 years is split into 10 equal bands, and each bar counts the countries in one band.

Number of countries in each band of life expectancy at birth
Band	Countries	Including
54.0 to 57.3 years	2	Chad, Nigeria
57.3 to 60.6 years	6	Mozambique, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia and 3 more
60.6 to 63.9 years	13	Kenya, Togo, Liberia and 10 more
63.9 to 67.2 years	21	Zambia, Comoros, Djibouti and 18 more
67.2 to 70.5 years	17	São Tomé and Príncipe, Egypt, Yemen and 14 more
70.5 to 73.8 years	26	Seychelles, Syria, Tonga and 23 more
73.8 to 77.1 years	43	Cape Verde, Iran, Algeria and 40 more
77.1 to 80.4 years	23	Czechia, Albania, Estonia and 20 more
80.4 to 83.7 years	30	United Arab Emirates, Israel, Qatar and 27 more
83.7 to 87.0 years	13	Monaco, San Marino, Japan and 10 more

How this is built: each band is one tenth of the gap between the lowest and highest value; a country is counted in the band its value falls in, and the top band includes the highest value. Countries with no comparable figure are left out. Chart drawn with Apache ECharts.

The full ranking

All 194 countries

Click any column heading to re-sort. Type to filter, or pick a region. Every country name links to its full profile.

194 countries shown

Life expectancy by country, ranked. Column headings re-sort the table.
Rank	Country	Life expectancy at birth	Region	Gen Alpha
#1	Monaco	87 years	Europe & Central Asia	5k
#2	San Marino	86 years	Europe & Central Asia	4k
#3	Japan	85 years	East Asia & Pacific	14m
#4	Malta	84 years	Middle East & North Africa	71k
#5	South Korea	84 years	East Asia & Pacific	6m
#6	Singapore	84 years	East Asia & Pacific	690k
#7	Australia	84 years	Oceania	5m
#8	Italy	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	7m
#9	Spain	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	6m
#10	Switzerland	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#11	Andorra	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	10k
#12	Gibraltar	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	7k
#13	Liechtenstein	84 years	Europe & Central Asia	6k
#14	United Arab Emirates	83 years	Middle East & North Africa	2m
#15	Israel	83 years	Middle East & North Africa	3m
#16	Qatar	83 years	Middle East & North Africa	476k
#17	France	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	12m
#18	Belgium	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#19	Sweden	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#20	Portugal	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#21	Norway	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	900k
#22	Luxembourg	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	108k
#23	Iceland	83 years	Europe & Central Asia	70k
#24	Bermuda	83 years	North America	9k
#25	Bahrain	82 years	Middle East & North Africa	309k
#26	Maldives	82 years	South Asia	101k
#27	New Zealand	82 years	Oceania	1m
#28	Netherlands	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	3m
#29	Greece	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#30	Austria	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#31	Denmark	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	937k
#32	Finland	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	806k
#33	Ireland	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#34	Slovenia	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	306k
#35	Cyprus	82 years	Europe & Central Asia	222k
#36	Canada	82 years	North America	6m
#37	Puerto Rico	82 years	Latin America	362k
#38	Oman	81 years	Middle East & North Africa	1m
#39	Kuwait	81 years	Middle East & North Africa	917k
#40	Germany	81 years	Europe & Central Asia	12m
#41	United Kingdom	81 years	Europe & Central Asia	12m
#42	Costa Rica	81 years	Latin America	947k
#43	Cayman Islands	81 years	Latin America	12k
#44	Czechia	80 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#45	Albania	80 years	Europe & Central Asia	457k
#46	Estonia	80 years	Europe & Central Asia	203k
#47	Chile	80 years	Latin America	4m
#48	Panama	80 years	Latin America	1m
#49	Thailand	79 years	East Asia & Pacific	11m
#50	Slovakia	79 years	Europe & Central Asia	849k
#51	Croatia	79 years	Europe & Central Asia	524k
#52	United States	79 years	North America	62m
#53	Cuba	79 years	Latin America	2m
#54	Uruguay	79 years	Latin America	605k
#55	Turks and Caicos Islands	79 years	Latin America	8k
#56	Turkey	78 years	Middle East & North Africa	19m
#57	Saudi Arabia	78 years	Middle East & North Africa	9m
#58	Jordan	78 years	Middle East & North Africa	4m
#59	Lebanon	78 years	Middle East & North Africa	2m
#60	China	78 years	East Asia & Pacific	230m
#61	Poland	78 years	Europe & Central Asia	6m
#62	Bosnia and Herzegovina	78 years	Europe & Central Asia	400k
#63	North Macedonia	78 years	Europe & Central Asia	298k
#64	Montenegro	78 years	Europe & Central Asia	112k
#65	Antigua and Barbuda	78 years	Latin America	17k
#66	British Virgin Islands	78 years	Latin America	6k
#67	Cape Verde	77 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	131k
#68	Iran	77 years	Middle East & North Africa	18m
#69	Algeria	77 years	Middle East & North Africa	14m
#70	Tunisia	77 years	Middle East & North Africa	3m
#71	Palestine	77 years	Middle East & North Africa	2m
#72	Sri Lanka	77 years	South Asia	4m
#73	Hungary	77 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#74	Serbia	77 years	Europe & Central Asia	947k
#75	Latvia	77 years	Europe & Central Asia	279k
#76	Colombia	77 years	Latin America	11m
#77	Argentina	77 years	Latin America	11m
#78	Peru	77 years	Latin America	8m
#79	Ecuador	77 years	Latin America	4m
#80	Barbados	77 years	Latin America	48k
#81	Curaçao	77 years	Latin America	27k
#82	Aruba	77 years	Latin America	18k
#83	Sint Maarten	77 years	Latin America	7k
#84	Morocco	76 years	Middle East & North Africa	10m
#85	Malaysia	76 years	East Asia & Pacific	8m
#86	Brunei	76 years	East Asia & Pacific	97k
#87	Romania	76 years	Europe & Central Asia	3m
#88	Bulgaria	76 years	Europe & Central Asia	960k
#89	Armenia	76 years	Europe & Central Asia	557k
#90	Lithuania	76 years	Europe & Central Asia	406k
#91	Brazil	76 years	Latin America	44m
#92	Grenada	76 years	Latin America	22k
#93	Mauritius	75 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	184k
#94	Libya	75 years	Middle East & North Africa	2m
#95	Vietnam	75 years	East Asia & Pacific	23m
#96	Kazakhstan	75 years	Europe & Central Asia	6m
#97	Azerbaijan	75 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#98	Belarus	75 years	Europe & Central Asia	1m
#99	Georgia	75 years	Europe & Central Asia	780k
#100	Mexico	75 years	North America	31m
#101	Nicaragua	75 years	Latin America	2m
#102	Bahamas	75 years	Latin America	71k
#103	Bangladesh	74 years	South Asia	44m
#104	North Korea	74 years	East Asia & Pacific	5m
#105	Dominican Republic	74 years	Latin America	3m
#106	Paraguay	74 years	Latin America	2m
#107	Trinidad and Tobago	74 years	Latin America	265k
#108	Suriname	74 years	Latin America	163k
#109	Belize	74 years	Latin America	113k
#110	Seychelles	73 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	27k
#111	Syria	73 years	Middle East & North Africa	8m
#112	Tonga	73 years	Oceania	36k
#113	Russia	73 years	Europe & Central Asia	26m
#114	Uzbekistan	73 years	Europe & Central Asia	12m
#115	Honduras	73 years	Latin America	3m
#116	El Salvador	73 years	Latin America	2m
#117	St Lucia	73 years	Latin America	31k
#118	St Kitts and Nevis	73 years	Latin America	9k
#119	Iraq	72 years	Middle East & North Africa	16m
#120	India	72 years	South Asia	327m
#121	Indonesia	72 years	East Asia & Pacific	68m
#122	Mongolia	72 years	East Asia & Pacific	1m
#123	Samoa	72 years	Oceania	84k
#124	Ukraine	72 years	Europe & Central Asia	6m
#125	Tajikistan	72 years	Europe & Central Asia	4m
#126	Kyrgyzstan	72 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#127	Moldova	72 years	Europe & Central Asia	578k
#128	Venezuela	72 years	Latin America	7m
#129	Guatemala	72 years	Latin America	6m
#130	Bolivia	72 years	Latin America	3m
#131	Jamaica	72 years	Latin America	518k
#132	St Vincent and the Grenadines	72 years	Latin America	21k
#133	Dominica	72 years	Latin America	12k
#134	Nepal	71 years	South Asia	8m
#135	Guyana	71 years	Latin America	243k
#136	São Tomé and Príncipe	70 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	92k
#137	Egypt	70 years	Middle East & North Africa	34m
#138	Yemen	70 years	Middle East & North Africa	18m
#139	Philippines	70 years	East Asia & Pacific	32m
#140	Laos	70 years	East Asia & Pacific	2m
#141	Palau	70 years	Oceania	3k
#142	Turkmenistan	70 years	Europe & Central Asia	2m
#143	Mauritania	69 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	2m
#144	Eritrea	69 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	1m
#145	Gabon	69 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	959k
#146	Malawi	68 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	9m
#147	Senegal	68 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	7m
#148	Rwanda	68 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	6m
#149	Namibia	68 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	1m
#150	Timor-Leste	68 years	East Asia & Pacific	476k
#151	Micronesia	68 years	Oceania	36k
#152	Tuvalu	68 years	Oceania	3k
#153	Zambia	67 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	9m
#154	Comoros	67 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	331k
#155	Djibouti	67 years	Middle East & North Africa	345k
#156	Pakistan	67 years	South Asia	80m
#157	Myanmar	67 years	East Asia & Pacific	13m
#158	Kiribati	67 years	Oceania	48k
#159	Marshall Islands	67 years	Oceania	12k
#160	Ethiopia	66 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	48m
#161	Tanzania	66 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	28m
#162	Sudan	66 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	19m
#163	Republic of the Congo	66 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	3m
#164	Gambia	66 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	1m
#165	South Africa	65 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	17m
#166	Guinea-Bissau	65 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	881k
#167	Eswatini	65 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	419k
#168	Afghanistan	65 years	Middle East & North Africa	17m
#169	Haiti	65 years	Latin America	4m
#170	Uganda	64 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	20m
#171	Ghana	64 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	12m
#172	Madagascar	64 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	13m
#173	Equatorial Guinea	64 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	736k
#174	Kenya	63 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	19m
#175	Togo	63 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	4m
#176	Liberia	63 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	2m
#177	Nauru	63 years	Oceania	5k
#178	Angola	62 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	15m
#179	Burkina Faso	62 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	10m
#180	Zimbabwe	62 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	7m
#181	Sierra Leone	62 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	3m
#182	DR Congo	61 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	44m
#183	Cameroon	61 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	12m
#184	Mali	61 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	12m
#185	Guinea	61 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	6m
#186	Benin	61 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	6m
#187	Mozambique	60 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	14m
#188	Côte d'Ivoire	59 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	12m
#189	Somalia	59 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	10m
#190	Lesotho	59 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	815k
#191	South Sudan	58 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	5m
#192	Central African Republic	58 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	3m
#193	Chad	56 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	10m
#194	Nigeria	54 years	Sub-Saharan Africa	95m

Reading the table

Life expectancy at birth is the most misread statistic in demography. It is not a prediction of how long a baby born today will live. It is what would happen if that baby faced today's mortality rates at every age for their whole life — which they will not, because those rates keep falling.

Japan leads at 85, with South Korea and Spain at 84. Nigeria sits at 54, Côte d'Ivoire at 59 and Mozambique at 60. A 31-year gap between the top and the bottom of the same table, in the same year.

For Generation Beta the honest framing is this: a child born in Japan in 2025 has a realistic chance of seeing 2115. A child born in Nigeria in the same week faces a very different set of odds — and also the largest scope for improvement, because the countries at the bottom of this table are the ones whose figures have moved fastest over the past thirty years.

Run the numbers yourself

Tools that use this data

Life Expectancy Projection

What life expectancy a child born today can reasonably expect, including projected medical improvement…

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Will They See 2100?

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Frequently asked

Which country has the highest life expectancy?

Japan, at about 85 years, followed by South Korea and Spain at about 84.

What is the world average life expectancy?

About 73 years.

Will Generation Beta live longer than this?

Almost certainly. Life expectancy at birth assumes today's mortality rates hold for a whole lifetime, and they have improved in nearly every decade on record.

How many countries are in this table?

This table ranks 194 countries with a comparable figure, out of the 194 countries profiled on AlphaBetaMinds. The countries in this table hold about 98% of the world population.

Can I reuse this data?

Yes, free of charge and commercially, with a credit to AlphaBetaMinds and a link to this page. The full dataset is also available as plain text at https://alphabetaminds.com/llms-countries.txt.

Other data tables

Generation Alpha population Generation Alpha share of population Projected Generation Beta births Under-15 population share Total fertility rate Median age Births per day School starting age Compulsory years of schooling Secondary school completion Daily screen time, ages 8–12 Internet use Cost of raising a child to 18 Urban population share Under-15 population change to 2040 Youth dependency ratio

Cite this table

AlphaBetaMinds (2026). Life expectancy by country. Retrieved from https://alphabetaminds.com/data/life-expectancy-by-country

Download the full dataset (CSV)

Sources: UN World Population Prospects, World Bank Open Data, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, ITU. Figures are 2025–2026 estimates. Method on our methodology page.