Japan and Monaco regularly post life expectancies above 84 years. Across 217 countries with 2024 data, Monaco tops the table for life expectancy (86.5 years), while Nigeria sits at the bottom (54.6).

The top 10

1. Monaco — 86.5
2. San Marino — 85.8
3. Hong Kong SAR, China — 85.4
4. Kuwait — 84.6
5. Switzerland — 84.4
6. Liechtenstein — 84.2
7. French Polynesia — 84.2
8. Andorra — 84.2
9. Sweden — 84.1
10. Japan — 84

At the other end of the table

• Nigeria — 54.6
• Chad — 55.2
• Central African Republic — 57.7

What the numbers show

The global average sits at about 74 years, with 114 of 217 countries above it. The median country (74.7) trails the leader by a wide margin. The top country reports roughly 1.6× the figure of the lowest — a reminder of how unevenly life expectancy is distributed.

Explore the complete, sortable ranking on the Life Expectancy by country map, or test your instincts in the daily map-guessing game. Data: World Bank Open Data, 2024.