Sovereign and dependent territory rows of the World Bank “Life expectancy at birth, total (years)” indicator. The top 30 countries by the most recent year are kept; missing years are stored as null (no interpolation). Aggregates such as regions and income groups (region.id === “NA”) are excluded.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Life Expectancy by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by the World Bank (World Bank indicator code SP.DYN.LE00.IN). Values are expressed in years.
What to watch. Two arcs stand out: Japan climbing from mid-pack in the 1960s to a permanent podium place from the 1980s, and the sobering dip across southern Africa in the late 1990s as HIV/AIDS temporarily reversed decades of gains.
Caveats. Life expectancy at birth is a synthetic measure — the lifespan implied if that year’s death rates persisted — not a forecast. War or epidemic years produce sharp temporary dips, and estimates fill the gaps for small countries and early decades.
Trends in the data
What changed most in this table is the spread. In 1960 the gap between first-placed Iceland at 74.04 years and last-placed United Arab Emirates at 50.65 was 23.39 years. By 2024 it is 4.16 years, between Monaco at 86.50 and Finland at 82.34. This is not a story of the world becoming uniform: because the top 30 is selected by the latest year’s value, only countries at similar levels gather at the right-hand end.
The largest gains belong to the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates added 32.42 years, from 50.65 to 83.07; Kuwait 25.38 years, from 59.20 to 84.58; and Qatar 24.75 years, from 57.77 to 82.52. South Korea added 29.83 years, from 53.80 to 83.63, climbing from 28th to 14th. Countries in the bottom group in 1960 now occupy part of the top. Kuwait moved from 26th to 4th and Hong Kong from 21st to 3rd.
Countries whose gains were smaller have fallen in rank. Iceland, first in 1960, added only 8.77 years, from 74.04 to 82.81, and sits 26th in 2024. Norway went from 2nd to 19th, the Faroe Islands from 5th to 20th, Finland from 16th to 30th, Australia from 10th to 22nd and Ireland from 12th to 23rd. Starting high leaves less headroom, and latecomers close the gap.
Japan’s path reads in the same light. In 1960 it stood at 67.70 years, 19th of 29 countries. It reached 4th by 1980 and 3rd in both 1990 and 2000. But it was 5th in 2010, 3rd in 2020, and 10th in 2024 at 84.04 years — down 0.52 years from 84.56 in 2020, so the value itself has stalled. Within these 30 countries, calling Japan “the world’s longest-lived country” no longer holds. Note that the top-30 cut means only countries above about 82 years in 2024 appear here, so shorter-lived countries and population giants such as China and India are not in the table.
Trivia quiz
The figure usually called "life expectancy" is the life expectancy at what age?
At birth (age 0): the number of years a newborn would be expected to live if that year's mortality pattern continued. (Source)
What was one of the biggest drivers of the large rise in global life expectancy during the 20th century?
Falling infant and child mortality, thanks to sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics. (Source)
What is the term for the years a person can expect to live in good health, without needing care?
Healthy life expectancy. The gap from total life expectancy approximates the years lived in poor health. (Source)
Source
World Bank — Life expectancy at birth, total (years) (SP.DYN.LE00.IN)