Female Life Expectancy by Country — Every Decade Since 1800

Life expectancy is more than a statistic; it is a measure of the typical duration of a woman’s existence, reflecting the cumulative impact of healthcare, societal safety, and personal well-being across a lifetime. Behind the figures lie the realities of daily life, from the infrastructure that supports aging to the risks that threaten it. We track every country MYRIAD covers, decade by decade, linking each data point to the tangible experience of living. This is the history of human survival, written in the shared arc of time.

Looking back to the 1800s, the evolution of these numbers reveals a stark transformation in global health. While progress has been uneven, the trajectory of life expectancy reveals the broad shift in how human societies sustain their members. Today, the divide remains significant. As of the 2020s, female life expectancy ranges from 87.75 years in Hong Kong to 48.89 years in Central African Republic across 156 countries. From the heights of Japan at 87.33 years to the challenges seen in Chad at 56.11 years, the gap persists.

Where you are born creates a distinct horizon for the years ahead. In the Dominican Republic, the median female life expectancy stands at 76.83 years. Contrast this with the lower end of our data, where Nigeria records 54.25 years and Somalia sits at 59.21 years. Each row in our chart represents a different set of conditions, from South Korea at 86.34 years to South Sudan at 60.34 years. These numbers define the boundaries of what is possible. Use our interactive tool to discover where you rank among everyone ever born.