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United States — Life expectancy
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, 1960–2024.
Latest value · 2024
78.9
Life Expectancy at Birth · years · +13.1% since 1960
Life expectancy for United States was 78.9 in 2024, according to the latest World Bank data. The series covers 65 years, from 1960 to 2024. The latest year is also the highest value on record for this series. The lowest was 69.8 in 1960 (about 1.1× the low point). Across that span the compound annual growth rate works out to 0.19% per year.
United States ranks 61 of 217 economies on this measure (1 = highest), putting it in the top 28%. The median for North America is 82.1, so United States sits below it. Over the last decade (2014–2024) the figure moved up 0%.
Key figures
Latest (2024)
78.9
First (1960)
69.8
Change
+13.1%
Highest
78.9
in 2024
Lowest
69.8
in 1960
Average
75.0
Annual growth (CAGR)
0.19%
Years of data
65
Recent years
| Year | years |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 78.89 |
| 2023 | 78.39 |
| 2022 | 77.43 |
| 2021 | 76.33 |
| 2020 | 76.98 |
| 2019 | 78.79 |
| 2018 | 78.64 |
| 2017 | 78.54 |
| 2016 | 78.54 |
| 2015 | 78.69 |
| 2014 | 78.84 |
| 2013 | 78.74 |
Reading this correctly. Number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of birth stayed the same throughout its life. Figures are in years. Comparing this series with a different measure of the same concept (for example a nominal figure against a purchasing-power-parity figure) will give misleading results.
Related data
Source. World Bank Open Data, indicator
SP.DYN.LE00.IN — Life Expectancy at Birth. Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Values are reproduced as published; this page computes the summary statistics (change, CAGR, extremes) from the underlying annual series. View the original dataset on data.worldbank.org.