Life Expectancy Calculator (UN Life Tables)
Average years ahead for your age, sex and country, from UN life tables.
Loading the UN life tables (about 170 KB, once)…
Chance of being alive at each age
| At birth | At 35 | Expected age |
|---|
These are period figures: they assume the death rates of 2023 stay the same for the rest of your life. Death rates usually keep falling, so people tend to live longer on average than a period table suggests. They describe the whole population of the country — not you, your health or your habits.
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects 2024 — single-age life tables, estimates for 2023 (CC BY 3.0 IGO).
For general information only, not medical advice. Consult a qualified health professional for advice about your situation.
About the Life Expectancy Calculator (UN Life Tables)
Choose a country (or the world or a continent), your sex and your age or date of birth. The calculator reads the United Nations World Population Prospects 2024 life table for that population — the latest estimates, for 2023 — and shows your remaining life expectancy, the age you would reach on average, the age by which half of people your age have died, and your chance of reaching 70, 80, 90 and 100, with a survival curve and an optional second country to compare.
Life tables describe whole populations, not individuals. These are period figures: they assume the death rates of one year continue for the rest of your life. The calculator does not adjust for smoking, weight, illness or wealth — no simple formula can do that reliably — and it explains why your own prospects can differ.
How to use it
- Pick the country or area (your country is selected first if this site knows it). The world and the continents are at the top of the list.
- Choose Female, Male or Everyone, and enter your age in years — decimals are fine — or your date of birth.
- Read the remaining years, the expected age and the chances of reaching each age. Pick a second country under Compare with to see both curves.
- Copy the summary, or download the chance of being alive at every age as CSV.
Examples
72.0 years of life expectancy at birth; about 65% of newborns would reach 70 at 2023 death rates
87.7 years — among the highest in the world
73.2 years
About 15.4 more years, to about age 80.4
Where the numbers come from
The UN Population Division publishes life tables for every country and area with single years of age from 0 to 100 and an open group for 100 and over. The calculator uses the survivors at each age (lₓ) of the latest estimate year and rebuilds the rest of each table exactly as the UN does — person-years lived in each year of age, the years remaining after each age and their average, eₓ — which reproduces the published life expectancies to within a hundredth of a year. Between whole ages, deaths are spread evenly through the year; above 100 the death rate is taken as constant.
- Remaining life expectancy at your age: the average number of further years lived by everyone alive at that age, under the table’s death rates.
- Chance of reaching an age = survivors at that age ÷ survivors at your age. In India, of every 100,000 babies about 65,120 would be alive at 70 at 2023 rates — a 65% chance at birth.
- Half live past: the age at which the number of survivors falls to half of those alive at your age (the median). It differs from the average because deaths are not spread evenly over the years: at younger ages the deaths of a few people early pull the average below the median.
Period or cohort life expectancy?
The UN defines life expectancy at birth as the average number of years a hypothetical group of people would live if they experienced the death rates of a given period throughout their lives. That is a period measure. A cohort measure follows the people actually born in a year and builds in the improvements in death rates expected during their lives. The UK Office for National Statistics explains that cohort figures are regarded as a more appropriate measure of how long a person of a given age can expect to live, and that the two would only match if death rates never changed.
In most countries death rates keep falling, so real lifespans tend to be longer than period figures suggest — especially for younger people, who have more decades of improvements ahead. Pandemics, wars and other shocks can push them the other way.
Why this cannot predict your own lifespan
A national life table averages everyone: healthy and ill, rich and poor, smokers and non-smokers, city and village. Your own prospects depend on all of these and on chance. The calculator deliberately makes no lifestyle “adjustments”: the UN tables do not split deaths by habits or health, so any such adjustment would be a guess presented as a number. To understand your own risks — blood pressure, smoking, weight, alcohol and more — talk to a doctor.
Sources and licence
- United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024 — single-age life tables, medium variant, estimates (CC BY 3.0 IGO)
- UN DESA, World Population Prospects 2024: Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections — glossary definition of life expectancy
- Office for National Statistics, Period and cohort life expectancy explained
Limitations
- Period life tables assume today’s death rates continue. Real lifespans are often longer because rates fall over time.
- They describe whole populations, not a person. Health, income, region within a country and chance all matter.
- The UN tables are estimates. For 117 countries, death data by age and sex were too sparse or unreliable, so the UN used model life tables fitted to the information available.
- Ages above 100 are one open group in the tables, so results there are approximate.
- State-level tables for India (Sample Registration System) are not included.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Downloads the UN life tables (about 170 KB) from MySmartCoPilot once; your age, sex and country stay in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is remaining life expectancy?
The average number of further years lived by people who have reached a given age, if death rates stay as they are. It is not the same as life expectancy at birth minus your age: having survived to your age, you can expect to reach a higher age than a newborn.
Why is my expected age higher than the life expectancy at birth?
Life expectancy at birth includes everyone who dies young. Each year you live, those risks are behind you, so your expected age rises. In India, life expectancy at birth is 72.0 years, but someone aged 65 can expect to reach about 80.
Does it take my health or lifestyle into account?
No. It uses the UN life table for the whole population of the country you choose. Habits such as smoking clearly matter, but simple “add or subtract years” rules are not validated for individuals, so this calculator does not use them.
Which year are the figures for?
The latest estimate year in the UN World Population Prospects 2024, which is 2023. The UN also publishes projections for later years; this calculator uses the estimates.
Do women live longer than men everywhere?
In the UN tables for 2023, female life expectancy at birth is higher than male in all 237 countries and areas; for the world it is 75.9 years for women and 70.5 for men. The size of the gap varies a lot between countries — compare them with the table under the chart.