Global Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy: Trends and COVID-19 Impact

Life expectancy at birth estimates how many years a newborn would live if current death rates persisted. Healthy life expectancy (HALE) estimates how many of those years are lived in full health [1].

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, global life expectancy increased by more than 6 years, from 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.1 years in 2019 [1]. HALE rose by 9%, from 58.1 to 63.5 years [1].

The rise in HALE (5.3 years) did not keep pace with the rise in life expectancy (6.4 years) between 2000 and 2019 [1]. WHO attributes the HALE gain mainly to lower mortality rather than fewer years lived with disability [1]. This means people gained years of life, but a larger number of them were lived in poor health.

By 2020, global life expectancy and HALE had rolled back to 2016 levels, at 72.5 years and 62.8 years [1]. In 2021 they fell further, to 71.4 years and 61.9 years, the levels of 2012 [1].

WHO's World Health Statistics 2025 reports that global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years between 2019 and 2021, the largest drop in recent history [2]. Higher anxiety and depression linked to COVID-19 reduced global HALE by 6 weeks [2].

In 2023, life expectancy at birth averaged 81.1 years across OECD countries [3]. Spain, Japan and Switzerland led a group of 27 OECD members where it exceeded 80 years [3]. The United States was in a second group with life expectancy between 75 and 80 years [3].

OECD countries gained an average of 1.7 years between 2010 and 2019, then lost an average of 0.7 years between 2019 and 2021 [3]. Life expectancy increased in 23 OECD countries between 2019 and 2023 [3]. Women aged 60 in OECD countries can expect to live 3.4 years longer than men, but spend 6.3 years with activity limitation versus 5.0 years for men [3].

World Health Statistics 2025 also tracks WHO's Triple Billion targets. An estimated 1.4 billion more people were living healthier lives by the end of 2024, above the 1 billion target, driven by lower tobacco use, better air quality and better access to water, sanitation and hygiene [2]. Progress on essential health service coverage and emergency protection lagged [2].

Global life expectancy and HALE values for 2000, 2016-level 2020, 2012-level 2021 and 2019 come from WHO Global Health Estimates life tables covering 2000-2021 [1]. The 1.8-year decline comes from WHO World Health Statistics 2025 as summarized by ReliefWeb [2]; it differs slightly from the 1.7-year gap implied by the WHO Global Health Estimates page (73.1 minus 71.4) because of rounding and estimate revisions. OECD averages come from Health at a Glance 2025 and cover OECD members only [3]. Global estimates after 2021 were not available in the sources reviewed, and UN World Population Prospects 2024 figures are not used here. Units are years at birth. No FREEE.REPORT calculations were used beyond the noted difference.