Global Life Expectancy by Country (1950–2023)

Life expectancy at birth for 227 countries and territories from 1950 to 2023, with regional and income-group aggregates.
# Entity
Code
Year
Life expectancy
1 Afghanistan AFG 1950 28.1563
2 Afghanistan AFG 1951 28.5836
3 Afghanistan AFG 1952 29.0138
4 Afghanistan AFG 1953 29.4521
5 Afghanistan AFG 1954 29.6975
6 Afghanistan AFG 1955 30.366
7 Afghanistan AFG 1956 30.8303
8 Afghanistan AFG 1957 31.3451
9 Afghanistan AFG 1958 31.84
10 Afghanistan AFG 1959 32.3365
11 Afghanistan AFG 1960 32.7987
12 Afghanistan AFG 1961 33.291
13 Afghanistan AFG 1962 33.7565
14 Afghanistan AFG 1963 34.2008
15 Afghanistan AFG 1964 34.6726
16 Afghanistan AFG 1965 35.1245
17 Afghanistan AFG 1966 35.5831
18 Afghanistan AFG 1967 36.042
19 Afghanistan AFG 1968 36.5101
20 Afghanistan AFG 1969 36.979
21 Afghanistan AFG 1970 37.4601
22 Afghanistan AFG 1971 37.9324
23 Afghanistan AFG 1972 38.4226
24 Afghanistan AFG 1973 38.951
25 Afghanistan AFG 1974 39.4687
26 Afghanistan AFG 1975 39.9944
27 Afghanistan AFG 1976 40.5184
28 Afghanistan AFG 1977 41.0821
29 Afghanistan AFG 1978 40.0859
30 Afghanistan AFG 1979 38.8441
31 Afghanistan AFG 1980 39.2581
32 Afghanistan AFG 1981 39.4058
33 Afghanistan AFG 1982 36.0577
34 Afghanistan AFG 1983 36.5174
35 Afghanistan AFG 1984 31.4732
36 Afghanistan AFG 1985 32.1316
37 Afghanistan AFG 1986 38.4001
38 Afghanistan AFG 1987 38.8312
39 Afghanistan AFG 1988 43.2381
40 Afghanistan AFG 1989 44.4961
41 Afghanistan AFG 1990 45.1183
42 Afghanistan AFG 1991 45.5207
43 Afghanistan AFG 1992 46.5691
44 Afghanistan AFG 1993 51.0212
45 Afghanistan AFG 1994 50.9689
46 Afghanistan AFG 1995 52.1032
47 Afghanistan AFG 1996 52.8302
48 Afghanistan AFG 1997 53.2123
49 Afghanistan AFG 1998 52.487
50 Afghanistan AFG 1999 54.5324
51 Afghanistan AFG 2000 55.0047
52 Afghanistan AFG 2001 55.5113
53 Afghanistan AFG 2002 56.2251
54 Afghanistan AFG 2003 57.1713
55 Afghanistan AFG 2004 57.8098
56 Afghanistan AFG 2005 58.2468
57 Afghanistan AFG 2006 58.5533
58 Afghanistan AFG 2007 58.9563
59 Afghanistan AFG 2008 59.7081
60 Afghanistan AFG 2009 60.2478
61 Afghanistan AFG 2010 60.7018
62 Afghanistan AFG 2011 61.2503
63 Afghanistan AFG 2012 61.7349
64 Afghanistan AFG 2013 62.1878
65 Afghanistan AFG 2014 62.2599
66 Afghanistan AFG 2015 62.2695
67 Afghanistan AFG 2016 62.6459
68 Afghanistan AFG 2017 62.4062
69 Afghanistan AFG 2018 62.4434
70 Afghanistan AFG 2019 62.9411
71 Afghanistan AFG 2020 61.4537
72 Afghanistan AFG 2021 60.4174
73 Afghanistan AFG 2022 65.617
74 Afghanistan AFG 2023 66.0346
75 Africa 1770 26.4
76 Africa 1925 26.4
77 Africa 1950 37.2455
78 Africa 1951 37.7751
79 Africa 1952 38.2546
80 Africa 1953 38.7309
81 Africa 1954 39.0876
82 Africa 1955 39.5474
83 Africa 1956 39.9762
84 Africa 1957 39.8561
85 Africa 1958 40.2405
86 Africa 1959 41.194
87 Africa 1960 41.3961
88 Africa 1961 41.7756
89 Africa 1962 42.2531
90 Africa 1963 42.7175
91 Africa 1964 43.0898
92 Africa 1965 43.3551
93 Africa 1966 43.4601
94 Africa 1967 43.7471
95 Africa 1968 44.2523
96 Africa 1969 44.5077
97 Africa 1970 44.9859
98 Africa 1971 45.3999
99 Africa 1972 45.4595
100 Africa 1973 46.101

Global Life Expectancy by Country (1950–2023) — Analysis

Global life expectancy more than doubled from 28.5 to 73.2 years between 1950 and 2023

COVID-19 erased 2 years of progress globally (72.6 → 70.9) between 2019–2021, but recovery reached a new high by 2023

Key Findings

  • South Korea saw the largest gain of any country: +62 years (22.2 → 84.3), transforming from one of the lowest to one of the highest
  • The gap between the longest-lived (Monaco, 86.4) and shortest-lived (Nigeria, 54.5) countries is still 32 years
  • Africa's life expectancy rose from 37 to 64 years but remains 15 years behind the global average
  • Europe's progress stalled in the 1990s (Soviet collapse) before resuming — a visible dip from 73.1 to 72.2
  • The Americas took the hardest COVID hit among continents, dropping 1.5 years between 2019 and 2020

Visualizations

Countries with Largest Gains (1950–2023)
Lowest Life Expectancy (2023)
Highest Life Expectancy (2023)
Life Expectancy by Continent

Expand Analysis

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