Science & Infrastructure1900–2023
Global Life Expectancy Leaders
Life expectancy is a ranking where every overtake is also a public-health story. The top shifts from early modern small states to Japan, Hong Kong and Europe’s longest-lived places as infant mortality collapses and chronic disease becomes the frontier.
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Source: World Bank, UN WPP and Our World in Data Selected long-lived countries/territories, rounded from international life-expectancy series. Microstate values are included when historically prominent. illustrative data Updated 2026-07-03
The race in numbers
4lead changes
123years covered
13contenders
Swedenlongest reign — 30 yrs at #1
Final standings · 2023
- 1Hong Kong85.3 yrs
- 2Japan84.6 yrs
- 3Switzerland84.3 yrs
- 4Singapore84.1 yrs
- 5Iceland83.8 yrs