What do Japan, Switzerland, Singapore and Spain have in common?

Their populations enjoy some of the world’s highest life expectancies. But the global longevity league table is more than a list of places where people reach old age. It offers clues about healthcare, living standards, disease prevention, social conditions and the environments in which people spend their lives.

The latest internationally comparable figures show that life expectancy at birth exceeded 80 years in many of the world’s wealthier countries in 2023, while the global average was about 73 years. The gap between the highest- and lowest-life-expectancy countries remains enormous.

First, what exactly is “life expectancy”?

Life expectancy at birth is a statistical measure of how long a newborn would be expected to live if the mortality rates observed in the relevant year remained constant throughout that person’s lifetime. It is therefore not a prediction that a particular baby will die at that exact age.

This distinction matters. A country’s life expectancy can change substantially when mortality rates change—for example, during a pandemic, war or major improvement in healthcare.

The World Health Organization also distinguishes ordinary life expectancy from healthy life expectancy (HALE), which estimates how many years a person can expect to live in full health. A country can therefore have a very high life expectancy without every additional year necessarily being free from illness or disability.

The world’s longevity leaders

Using the UN World Population Prospects 2024 dataset, as presented by Our World in Data, the leading countries and territories in 2023 included:

Rank	Country or territory	Life expectancy
1	Monaco	86.4 years
2	San Marino	85.7
3	Hong Kong	85.5
4	Japan	84.7
5	South Korea	84.3
6	Andorra	84.0
7	Switzerland	84.0
8	Australia	83.9
9	Singapore	83.7
10	Italy	83.7
11	Spain	83.7
12	Liechtenstein	83.6

These figures come from the UN’s World Population Prospects 2024, with Our World in Data providing the presentation and processing.

There is an important methodological caveat here: “country” rankings can include territories and very small states, depending on the dataset. Monaco and San Marino, for example, have populations far smaller than Japan or Australia. If the question is specifically about larger sovereign countries, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Spain become particularly prominent.

Japan: the longevity giant

Japan has long been synonymous with exceptional longevity, and the latest UN-based data continues to place it near the top of the global table, at 84.7 years in 2023.

Japan’s experience is particularly interesting because its longevity advantage is not simply a product of being a wealthy country. Researchers have pointed to a combination of factors including relatively low cardiovascular mortality, dietary patterns, high healthcare coverage and longstanding public-health interventions.

Japan also stands out when looking beyond birth. World Bank data shows that Japanese people aged 60 could expect, on average, another 29.4 years of life in 2023.

That illustrates an important point: longevity is not only about preventing deaths among children and young adults. Countries with the highest overall life expectancy also tend to do relatively well at keeping people alive into their 70s, 80s and beyond.

Singapore: healthcare, prevention and a dense urban environment

Singapore recorded life expectancy of about 83.7 years in 2023, putting it among the world’s leaders.

The city-state demonstrates that exceptionally long lives are not restricted to countries with large rural populations or Mediterranean lifestyles. Singapore combines a highly urbanized environment with high incomes, extensive healthcare infrastructure, strong public-health programs and relatively low rates of some major causes of premature death.

It is also among the countries highlighted by WHO for high healthy-life-expectancy performance, although healthy life expectancy is a different measure from total life expectancy.

Switzerland and Australia: longevity across very different lifestyles

Switzerland had life expectancy of approximately 84.0 years in 2023, while Australia reached about 83.9 years.

Their presence near the top is a reminder that there is no single “longevity lifestyle.”

Switzerland has high incomes, extensive healthcare resources and strong social and environmental conditions. Australia combines a wealthy healthcare system with relatively high levels of physical activity in parts of the population, although it also faces significant health challenges.

What these countries share is perhaps more important than what separates them: high living standards, effective healthcare, relatively low infant and child mortality and substantial resources devoted to disease prevention and treatment.

Southern Europe remains a longevity powerhouse

Italy and Spain both recorded life expectancy of roughly 83.7 years in 2023, placing them among the world’s leaders.

Their performance is particularly noteworthy because they demonstrate that very high longevity can coexist with lifestyles that do not resemble those of highly urbanized Asian economies.

Mediterranean dietary patterns are often discussed in longevity research, particularly diets rich in vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, fish and olive oil. But it would be misleading to attribute national life expectancy to a single food or diet. Healthcare access, income, education, social networks, smoking patterns, physical activity and public policy all interact.

The global picture is much bigger than the top 10

The most striking finding may be how far the world has come overall.

Our World in Data estimates that global life expectancy was approximately 73.2 years in 2023, compared with about 32 years in 1900. In other words, average human life expectancy has more than doubled over the long run.

But progress has been uneven.

In 2023, the UN-based dataset put life expectancy at roughly 78.0 years in China, 79.3 in the United States, 82.7 in Iceland and 82.6 in Canada.

At the other end of the distribution, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa had life expectancies in the 60s or below. The difference is not merely a reflection of individual lifestyle choices. Infectious disease, maternal and child mortality, poverty, healthcare access, conflict, nutrition and other structural factors can have enormous effects on national survival rates.

Longer life does not automatically mean healthier life

This is perhaps the most important qualification to any longevity ranking.

Imagine two countries where people live to an average age of 84. In one, people spend most of their final years in relatively good health. In the other, people survive longer but experience many years with chronic disease or disability.

Their life expectancy is identical, but their populations’ experiences of aging are very different.

That is why WHO tracks healthy life expectancy (HALE) alongside conventional life expectancy. HALE adjusts the simple longevity measure by considering time lived in less than full health.

For governments, this distinction is increasingly important as populations age. The goal isn’t simply to add years to life; it is to increase the number of years people can live independently and in good health.

What do the world’s longest-lived countries have in common?

There is no universal formula for reaching 85. But the data points toward several broad ingredients.

1. Strong healthcare systems

Access to preventive care, vaccination, diagnosis, treatment and emergency medicine can substantially reduce premature deaths.

2. Low infant and child mortality

A country’s average life expectancy is strongly affected by deaths early in life. Reducing infant and child mortality therefore produces large gains in national life expectancy.

3. Education and income

Education influences health knowledge, employment opportunities, household income and the ability to navigate healthcare systems. Higher incomes also generally provide greater access to nutritious food, safe housing and medical care.

4. Lower rates of major risk factors

Smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, obesity, hypertension and physical inactivity are important contributors to chronic disease. Countries that reduce these risks can improve survival.

5. Social and environmental conditions

Clean water, sanitation, safe housing, air quality, public safety and social cohesion all contribute to health outcomes.

6. Effective public policy

Some of the biggest gains in longevity have come not from individual medical breakthroughs but from population-wide interventions: sanitation, vaccination, tobacco control, road safety, maternal care and disease prevention.

A useful warning about “the secrets of longevity”

Whenever a country tops a longevity ranking, headlines tend to search for a simple explanation: a particular diet, a daily walking habit, a traditional food or a supposedly magical lifestyle.

The evidence is more complicated.

National life expectancy is an aggregate outcome produced by thousands of interacting factors. A diet associated with longevity in one population cannot automatically be assumed to cause long life in another. Likewise, correlation between a lifestyle characteristic and longevity does not establish that the characteristic caused the difference.

The strongest conclusion from the international data is therefore not that everyone should copy Japan, Switzerland or Spain. It is that long life tends to emerge from broad systems that reduce preventable death and support health throughout the life course.

The bottom line

The world’s longevity leaders are clustered around a remarkably high threshold: roughly 84 to 86 years of life expectancy at birth in the latest UN-based 2023 data. Monaco, San Marino, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Spain are among the standout performers.

Yet the more interesting story is the long-term global transformation. Humanity’s average life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900, even though enormous differences remain between countries.

And the next challenge may be harder than simply extending life: helping people spend more of those additional years healthy, independent and free from preventable disease.

Sources and methodology

The rankings in this article use 2023 life-expectancy-at-birth estimates from the United Nations World Population Prospects 2024, accessed through Our World in Data. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators provide a complementary 2023 series, while WHO supplies internationally standardized life-expectancy and healthy-life-expectancy measures.

For readers who want to reproduce or explore the numbers, the underlying datasets are available through Our World in Data’s life-expectancy dataset, the World Bank’s life-expectancy data and WHO’s global health statistics.