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The 10 Countries Where People Can Expect to Live the Longest |
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Japan counted 107,677 people aged 100 or older last month, the first time it has passed 100,000. It still isn’t the longest-lived country on Earth. By the UN’s latest estimates, that title belongs to Monaco, a country of 39,000 people. Two more microstates make the top five. |
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Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024 (released July 11, 2024), via Our World in Data. Life expectancy at birth, years, 2023 estimates. UN member states. |
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| What's Surprising |
Monaco has 39,000 people and the longest lives on Earth: 86.4 years at birth, by the UN’s estimate. San Marino, with 34,000 people, is second at 85.7. Andorra, with 81,000, is fifth. Three of the top five countries hold about 154,000 people between them.
Small countries need a caution. A place this size records too few deaths each year for a steady life table, so the UN models and smooths its figures. Read the top two as estimates, not measurements. Liechtenstein, another microstate of 40,000, sits 11th, just off the chart.
South Korea is the real story. In 1960 a Korean baby could expect 53.8 years. By 2023 it was 84.3. That is a gain of 30.6 years inside one lifetime, the biggest in the top ten by a wide margin. Singapore gained 18.4 years over the same stretch. Japan gained 17.0. Korea’s own statistics office puts Korean women at 86.6 years, third in the world behind Japan and Spain.
| What's Not Surprising |
Japan is the longest-lived large country. It has 124 million people and sits 1.7 years behind Monaco. Its health ministry puts women born in 2025 at 87.3 years, which it says leads the world. Hong Kong would rank third at 85.5, but it is a territory, not a country, so it sits off this chart.
Six of the ten are in Europe. Three are in East Asia. The tenth is Australia. Meanwhile, the US. Americans can expect 79.3 years, which ranks 44th among the UN’s 193 members, behind Albania, Panama and Chile. In 2000 the gap between America and China was 4.5 years. By 2023 it was 1.4.
The bottom of the table is where the gains are left to make. Nigeria, at 54.5, is last of the 237 countries and territories the UN tracks. All ten of the shortest-lived countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Russia, at 73.2, sits level with the world average. It has added just 4.8 years since 1960. The world as a whole has added 26.8 years since 1950, from 46.4 to 73.2.
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107,677 Japanese aged 100 or older on September 1, 2026. It is the first count above 100,000, and nearly nine in ten are women. |
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30.6 years South Korea’s gain in life expectancy since 1960, from 53.8 to 84.3. No other country in the top ten comes close. |
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44th America’s rank among the UN’s 193 members, at 79.3 years. Albania and Panama both rank higher. China, at 78.0, is 52nd. |
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31.9 years The gap between Monaco (86.4) and Nigeria (54.5), the longest- and shortest-lived countries on the UN’s list. That is more than a third of a Monegasque life. |
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1.4 years The gap between American and Chinese life expectancy in 2023. In 2000 it was 4.5 years. |
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Japan’s centenarian count has now risen for 56 straight years, and the next one comes next September. Two releases to track before then. Statistics Korea publishes its 2025 life tables in December; its 2024 figure was a record 83.7 years. The CDC’s 2025 number for the US is due around the turn of the year, after a record 79.0 in 2024. National figures run a little below the UN’s, so watch the direction, not the decimals. The UN revises its own estimates every two to three years. We’ll be watching. |
