Dataset · UN DESA Population Division
Life Expectancy at Birth
74 years, 1950–2023 · 222 countries
Life expectancy at birth is the most widely used single summary of a population's health: how long a newborn would live if the death rates of today held for the whole of their life. It is not a forecast about any individual, and it is not a prediction — it is a snapshot of current mortality expressed as an age. The United Nations estimates it for every country on the same basis, which is what makes it comparable.
This site holds every year from 1950 to 2023, read from UN DESA Population Division’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Life Expectancy at Birth · the file
- Newest
- Life Expectancy at Birth, 2023
- Held
- 74 years · 16,428 rows
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
0174 years
Every year
Newest first. Each opens the full table for that year, and each downloads as a CSV.
| Year | Countries | Change | Read | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2023Newest | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2022 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2021 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2020 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2019 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2018 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2017 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2016 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2015 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2014 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2013 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
| Life Expectancy at Birth, 2012 | 222 | ±0 | September 26, 2026 | CSV |
Show all 74 years
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: life-expectancy-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
023 columns
What’s in the file
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2023 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 222 | 0 | |
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 222 | 0 | |
Life expectancy at birth, both sexes (years)life_expectancyHeadline | The headline figure: Years a newborn would live at current death rates. | Number · up to 4 decimals | 54.462 Nigeria86.372 Monacomiddle 74.630 | 221 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.
03222 countries across every year
Who is covered
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| Americas | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Asia | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
| Europe | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Oceania | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| All | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 |
The newest 12 of 74 years.
The same 222 countries in every year.
Not in this dataset · 3 places this site covers
UN DESA Population Division gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
04Provenance
Where it comes from
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
UN DESA Population Division
2 · Their file
World Population Prospects 2024: life expectancy at birth, 2023
3 · Read by this site
September 26, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.4 · Stored as
74 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as life-expectancy-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
/statistics/life-expectancyA key for Health & Wellbeing in the Country Index.
Precision
The headline is stored to 4 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
Read from the Population Division's own CSV download rather than from a redistributor, and stored to the four decimals the UN publishes. Projections are excluded: only years the UN has measured appear here.
05Reuse
Licence and credit
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked September 12, 2026
- Share and redistribute it
- Adapt it and build on it
- Use it commercially
- Credit the publisher
- Say what you changed
The version of CC BY written for intergovernmental organisations. Credit the publisher and say what you changed.
A credit line
Source: UN DESA Population Division, Life Expectancy at Birth, via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
UN DESA Population Division. Life Expectancy at Birth, 1950–2023 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/life-expectancy
The publisher’s own citation: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. New York: United Nations.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Questions
Life Expectancy at Birth: questions and answers
What is the Life Expectancy at Birth?
Life expectancy at birth is the most widely used single summary of a population's health: how long a newborn would live if the death rates of today held for the whole of their life. It is not a forecast about any individual, and it is not a prediction — it is a snapshot of current mortality expressed as an age. The United Nations estimates it for every country on the same basis, which is what makes it comparable.
Which years of the Life Expectancy at Birth can I download?
All 74, from 1950 to 2023, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
Does UN DESA Population Division rank countries on it?
No. UN DESA Population Division publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes, under CC BY 3.0 IGO, with credit to UN DESA Population Division. The licence text is linked on this page.