How long do people around the world live, and how has that changed since 1960?

A baby born in 2024 could expect to live 73.5 years on average across the world, up from 50.9 in 1960. The very low early-1960s figures include the famine in China. Life expectancy fell to 71.2 years in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, then recovered. These are United Nations estimates.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

Key facts

Measure: Life expectancy at birth, years. Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2024, is 73.5.
  • That is up 44% from 50.9 in 1960.
  • It is the highest in the data, which go back to 1960.
  • The lowest was 50.9 in 1960.

Source and date

Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators: Life expectancy at birth, total (years)
License
CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How long do people around the world live, and how has that changed since 1960?” Chart. Data: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Life expectancy at birth, total (years), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN (data as of December 31, 2024). https://chart.ly/charts/world-life-expectancy (accessed October 15, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year Life expectancy at birth, years
1960 50.9
1961 52.8
1962 55.3
1963 55.7
1964 56.1
1965 55.9
1966 56.4
1967 56.9
1968 57.3
1969 57.7
1970 57.9
1971 58
1972 58.8
1973 59.3
1974 59.7
1975 60.1
1976 60.5
1977 61
1978 61.4
1979 61.8
1980 62.2
1981 62.5
1982 62.9
1983 63.1
1984 63.4
1985 63.7
1986 64.1
1987 64.5
1988 64.7
1989 65
1990 65.1
1991 65.3
1992 65.5
1993 65.7
1994 66
1995 66.2
1996 66.5
1997 66.8
1998 67.1
1999 67.3
2000 67.7
2001 67.9
2002 68.2
2003 68.5
2004 68.8
2005 69.1
2006 69.5
2007 69.8
2008 70
2009 70.4
2010 70.7
2011 71
2012 71.3
2013 71.5
2014 71.8
2015 72
2016 72.2
2017 72.4
2018 72.6
2019 72.9
2020 72.2
2021 71.2
2022 73
2023 73.3
2024 73.5

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.