On average, the United States has a lower life expectancy than comparable countries. Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a person at a given age might live based on mortality rates. This chart collection examines how life expectancy in the U.S. compares to that of other similarly large and wealthy countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The countries included in the comparison are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. increased 0.6 years from 78.4 years in 2023 to 79.0 years in 2024, its highest-ever level. However, the average life expectancy in comparable countries was 82.7 years, about 3.7 years longer than in the U.S., reflecting a persistently wide difference in life expectancy between the U.S. and comparable countries.
Some key findings include:
- In 2024, U.S. life expectancy reached a record high of 79 years, 3.7 years below the comparable country average of 82.7 years.
- Life expectancy in the U.S. increased 0.6 years, and there was little change in the life expectancy of peer countries, on average (up 0.1 years).
- The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in in 2024 as the age-adjusted mortality rates for COVID-19, drug overdoses, and some chronic diseases declined in the U.S.
- In the U.S., life expectancy for women is 4.9 years longer than for men, on average. There is a smaller gap between women and men in peer countries, on average (4.2 years).
- While the U.S. has a lower life expectancy than comparable countries, it spends nearly twice as much as its peers on healthcare per person.
In 2024, life expectancy in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 79 years but remained years behind the average in comparable countries
In 2024, life expectancy at birth in the U.S. increased to an all-time high of 79.0 years, up 0.6 years from 78.4 years in 2023. This was 3.7 years below the comparable country average of 82.7 years. U.S. life expectancy growth in 2024 was mostly driven by a decline in age-adjusted mortality rates for unintentional injuries (such as drug overdoses), COVID-19, and many chronic diseases (such as kidney disease and diabetes). Life expectancy remained stable between 2023 and 2024 in most comparable countries, on average. As a result, the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024.
The U.S. has had a lower life expectancy than peer countries for decades and the gap had been growing. Between 1980 and 2010, life expectancy increased steadily in both the U.S. and peer countries increasing at a slower rate in the U.S. U.S. life expectancy stagnated in the 2010s, increasing by 0.1 years compared to an average increase of 1.2 years in peer countries between 2010 and 2019. U.S. life expectancy growth slowed during this period partially due to higher mortality rates for suicides and overdoses, as well as increasing rates of mortality for chronic diseases like diabetes, kidney, and liver disease.
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Life expectancy decreased in the U.S. and peer countries in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the U.S. experienced a sharper drop in life expectancy and took longer to return to pre-pandemic levels than most comparable countries. During this period, the U.S. had a higher rate of excess mortality per capita and a larger increase in premature mortality per capita than peer countries as a result of COVID-19, with over one million of the over seven million COVID-19 deaths worldwide.
Many factors continue to contribute to the gaps in life expectancy and premature mortality between the U.S and comparable countries, including differences in the burden of chronic disease, socioeconomic conditions, barriers to accessing healthcare, and wide racial disparities within the U.S. Life expectancy also varies considerably within the U.S., though life expectancy in all U.S. states was below the average for comparable countries as of 2022.
Among peer countries, the U.S. had the lowest life expectancy at birth for both women and men
In the U.S. and all other comparable countries, women tend to live longer than men. However, the U.S. ranked lowest in life expectancy for both men and women among countries with high GDP per capita.
The life expectancy gap between men and women was wider in the U.S. than in comparable countries
Between 2023 and 2024, life expectancy at birth for men increased by 0.7 years in the U.S. and increased by 0.2 years in comparable countries, on average. Life expectancy at birth increased by 0.3 years for women in the U.S. and increased by about 0.1 year for women in comparable countries, on average. Despite these larger increases, both men and women have lower life expectancy in the U.S. than in all other countries.
In 2024, the gap in life expectancy between women and men in the U.S. (4.9 years) also remained wider than the average gap in life expectancy between women and men in comparable countries (4.2 years). Still, this marked a shrinking gap (down 0.4 years difference) between women’s and men’s life expectancy in the U.S. from 5.3 years in 2023.
The disparity in life expectancy between the U.S. and peer countries persisted at older ages
Since most people start to interact with the healthcare system more regularly as they get older, measuring life expectancy at older ages may provide a better sense of how well the health system performs, in combination with how healthy people are when they reach older ages. While the absolute difference in life expectancy between the U.S. and comparable countries decreased at older ages, the relative difference in life expectancy between the U.S. and its peers became more pronounced at older ages, particularly for women. In 2024, life expectancy for women in comparable countries exceeded the U.S., on average, by 4.1% at birth and by 7.4% at age 65. That year, life expectancy for men in comparable countries exceeded the U.S., on average, by 5.3% at birth and 5.5% at age 65.
The U.S. had the lowest life expectancy among comparable countries while outspending its peers on healthcare
The U.S. had the lowest life expectancy among peer countries and spent nearly twice as much, on average, as peer countries on healthcare on a per person basis. In 2024, the U.S. spent nearly $5,000 more per capita on healthcare than the next highest spending country, Switzerland, and nearly $7,000 higher compared to the comparable average.
Both life expectancy and health spending may be influenced by both population health and factors outside of the health system, such as income inequality, investments in public health, social services, and other socioeconomic factors.
In 1980, the U.S. and comparable countries had similar life expectancies and health spending, but the trends have diverged over the past 40 years
Among peer nations, the U.S. had the highest per person healthcare spending, reaching an estimated $14,775 per capita in 2024. Healthcare spending has grown faster in the U.S. than in peer countries, while life expectancy has grown slower in the U.S. than in peer countries.
Methods
Life expectancy data for 2024 for the U.S. and comparable countries were gathered from official health and statistics department websites. Life expectancy data for the United States come from the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and represent single year life expectancy estimates at exact age. Data for Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland come from Eurostat, the statistical office for the European Union. Eurostat data have a break in series for all countries in 2024 and life expectancy data for France is provisional. Data for Australia come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and represent a three-year average estimate of life expectancy at exact age. Data for Canada come from Statistics Canada and represent a single year estimate of life expectancy for all provinces except Prince Edward Island. Data for Japan come from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare and represent a simple average of single year male and female life expectancy estimates. Data for the United Kingdom come from the U.K. Office for National Statistics and represent a simple average of male and female life expectancy estimates for all of the U.K.
Life expectancy data prior to 2024 were gathered from the OECD. OECD life expectancy data is missing for Australia in 1980, have a break in series for Canada in 1980, is estimated for Japan from 1980-2023, and is estimated for the United Kingdom from 1980-2023.
The life expectancy data presented here are period life expectancy estimates based on excess mortality or the observed mortality rate in a given year compared to previous years. Period life expectancy at birth represents the mortality experience of a hypothetical cohort if current conditions persisted into the future and not the mortality experience of a birth cohort. On the other hand, cohort life expectancy estimates, or estimates of how long people born in a year are expected to live, are a combination of historical and projected mortality rates for a birth cohort with the assumption that mortality rates will improve in the future. As a result, cohort life expectancy estimates are higher than period life expectancy estimates and less reflective of changes in mortality in the present.
Health spending data for the U.S. for all years are gathered from the National Health Expenditure (NHE) accounts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and represent health consumption expenditures only.
Health spending data in this analysis were gathered from the OECD for all comparable countries. For health spending data, the 1991 data point for Germany was unavailable; from 1980-1990, health spending data in France was only available for 1980, 1985, and 1990. Therefore, data for France was only shown from 1990 onward. OECD health spending data have a difference in definition for Australia from 1998-2013; breaks in series for Austria in 1990 and 1995; a difference in definition for Belgium from 1980-1994 and breaks in series in 1995 and 2003; a break in series for Canada in 2006 and a difference in definition from 2020-2022; breaks in series for France in 1995, 2003, 2006, and 2010; a break in series for Germany in 1992; a difference in definition for Japan from 1980- 1994 and breaks in series in 2011 and 2023; breaks in series for the Netherlands in 1998 and 2021; breaks in series for Sweden in 1993, 2001, and 2011; a break in series for Switzerland in 1995; and a break in series for the United Kingdom in 1997. 2023 health spending data for Australia is estimated while 2023 health spending data for Japan is provisional. 2024 health spending data for all peer countries were either estimated or provisional.
The Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF are partnering to monitor how well the U.S. healthcare system is performing in terms of quality and cost.
