Indicator
Trends in international life expectancy at birth
Published
11 December 2024
Last updated
26 June 2026
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- In 2003, the UK ranked 24th out of the 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for female period life expectancy at birth. By 2023 it had fallen to 28th place, with five countries (Estonia, Denmark, Republic of Korea, Slovenia and Chile) overtaking the UK in female period life expectancy estimates during that period.
- Although the UK ranks better for male period life expectancy, improvements between 2013 and 2023 were smaller than seen in other OECD countries. When ranked by male period life expectancy, the UK fell from 14th place in 2013 to 23rd place in 2023, of the 38 OECD countries.
Longevity is often considered a sign of the health and prosperity of a country’s population. Used in combination with other measures such as GDP, it can help to capture the prosperity of a country now and its future potential, and is an important signal of social progress. Period life expectancy at birth – a summary measure of years of life based on mortality in a given year – tends to be used as a consistent metric to make comparisons between countries.
This chart shows period life expectancy at birth in countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over the period 2003 to 2023.
- Between 2003 and 2013, life expectancy at birth for women living in the UK increased by 2.3 years to 82.8 years. Between 2013 and 2023, it increased by just 0.1 years.
- While improvements in men’s life expectancy at birth in the UK have been greater than for women, they too have started to stall. Between 2003 and 2013 male life expectancy increased by 2.9 years to 79.0 years. In contrast, between 2013 and 2023 it remained at 79.0 years.
- The gap between the OECD countries with the highest and lowest life expectancy has narrowed over time. In the 2003, this gap was 10.9 year for women and 14.2 years for men. In 2023 this has improved to 8.5 years for women and 11.9 years for men.
- Life expectancy refers to period life expectancy at birth – calculated using age specific mortality rates of a given area and point in time and assuming these will stay the same over time.
- The most recent data available for Türkiye is for 2022, due to data availability.
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Stat, Life Expectancy, 2023.
