Life expectancy by age
The number you have heard — about 76 for American men, 81 for women — is life expectancy at birth, and it does not apply to you. It averages in everyone who dies young. Once you have already survived those years, your expected age at death goes up.
A man who has already reached 65 can expect to reach 83.1, not 75.8 — a difference of 7.3 years that nobody mentions. This is the single most misread statistic in public health.
Expected age at death, by the age you are now
| Current age | Men | Women | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lives to | years left | lives to | years left | |
| At birth | 75.8 | 75.8 | 81.1 | 81.1 |
| 1 | 76.2 | 75.2 | 81.5 | 80.5 |
| 5 | 76.3 | 71.3 | 81.6 | 76.6 |
| 10 | 76.4 | 66.4 | 81.6 | 71.6 |
| 15 | 76.4 | 61.4 | 81.6 | 66.6 |
| 20 | 76.7 | 56.7 | 81.7 | 61.7 |
| 25 | 77.1 | 52.1 | 81.9 | 56.9 |
| 30 | 77.5 | 47.5 | 82.1 | 52.1 |
| 35 | 78.0 | 43.0 | 82.3 | 47.3 |
| 40 | 78.6 | 38.6 | 82.6 | 42.6 |
| 45 | 79.2 | 34.2 | 83.0 | 38.0 |
| 50 | 79.9 | 29.9 | 83.5 | 33.5 |
| 55 | 80.7 | 25.7 | 84.0 | 29.0 |
| 60 | 81.8 | 21.8 | 84.7 | 24.7 |
| 65 | 83.1 | 18.1 | 85.7 | 20.7 |
| 70 | 84.7 | 14.7 | 86.8 | 16.8 |
| 75 | 86.4 | 11.4 | 88.1 | 13.1 |
| 80 | 88.5 | 8.5 | 89.8 | 9.8 |
| 85 | 91.0 | 6.0 | 92.0 | 7.0 |
| 90 | 94.1 | 4.1 | 94.8 | 4.8 |
| 95 | 97.8 | 2.8 | 98.2 | 3.2 |
| 100 | 102.0 | 2.0 | 102.2 | 2.2 |
United States, derived from the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table. Our implementation reproduces the SSA’s own published figures to two decimal places.
Why the number climbs
A period life table is a survivorship calculation. Life expectancy at birth asks: if a hypothetical cohort of 100,000 newborns faced today’s death rates at every age, how long would they live on average? Infant and childhood deaths pull that average down hard, even though they are rare.
Ask the same question of someone who is already 65 and all of those early deaths drop out of the calculation. They have already not happened to you. What remains is only the mortality still ahead, which is why the expected age at death rises every year you survive — slowly at first, then more visibly in old age.
It also explains a common confusion about history. Medieval life expectancy of around 30 did not mean everyone died at 30; it meant enormous numbers of children died, and those who made it to adulthood often reached their sixties.
This table is an average, not a forecast
Two things move you off it, and both are larger than most people expect. The first is where you live: national life expectancy ranges from about 55 to 87 years — a spread wider than smoking, obesity and inactivity combined.
The second is how you live. Within any one country, the distance between the healthiest and least healthy lifestyle is worth roughly 12 to 20 years.
Your number, not the average
Twelve questions and this table becomes yours — adjusted for your country and how you actually live.