Countries by Life expectancy at birth, male (years)
Monaco ranks first globally for male life expectancy at birth, with newborn males projected to live 84.45 years under 2023 mortality conditions. At the other end, Chad ranks 216th at 53.20 years, a gap of more than 31 years between the top and bottom. That 31-year spread across 216 countries reflects the wide variation in mortality patterns recorded in this dataset.
Ranking 2023
Values shown in years.
Analysis
Male life expectancy at birth measures the number of years a newborn male would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of his birth were to stay the same throughout his life. The unit is years. This metric captures the overall mortality environment at a single point in time rather than tracking actual cohort survival. Data for this ranking comes from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN, for the reference year 2023. Coverage is strong: 216 countries are included, all with data confirmed from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality. The World Bank identified 9 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. The full range runs from 53.20 years to 84.45 years, a spread of 58.8% relative to the minimum value.
The top of the ranking is led by Monaco at 84.45 years (rank 1) and San Marino at 84.21 years (rank 2). Kuwait reaches 82.70 years (rank 3), ahead of Hong Kong SAR at 82.54 years (rank 4) and Liechtenstein at 82.50 years (rank 5). Switzerland (rank 6, 82.30 years), Andorra (rank 7, 82.10 years), and the United Arab Emirates (rank 8, 81.98 years) follow closely. Several Gulf states appear near the top: Bahrain ranks 26th at 80.67 years and Qatar ranks 14th at 81.61 years. European nations including Italy, Luxembourg, and Sweden share rank 11 at 81.70 years. Japan, often cited in longevity discussions, ranks 20th at 81.09 years.
The middle of the ranking shows notable variation. The United States ranks 60th at 75.80 years, placing it below Kosovo (rank 59, 75.80 years) and Iran (rank 61, 75.79 years). China ranks 67th at 75.20 years, while Russia ranks 145th at 68.04 years, a striking difference between two large countries. In the lower tier, Nigeria ranks 215th at 54.18 years and Lesotho ranks 214th at 54.62 years. West Bank and Gaza ranks 206th at 59.69 years, the only territorial entry in the bottom quartile alongside several sub-Saharan African nations. Three countries share rank 11 (Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden at 81.70 years), and two share rank 17 (New Zealand and Spain at 81.20 years), illustrating how closely grouped values are near the top.
Several data limitations apply to this metric. Life expectancy at birth is a synthetic cohort measure: it assumes current mortality rates remain constant, which rarely holds in practice. It does not reflect improvements or deteriorations in health conditions that occur after the reference year. Reporting quality varies across countries, particularly in lower-income nations where civil registration systems may be incomplete. For territories and small jurisdictions such as Monaco, San Marino, and Liechtenstein, population sizes are very small, which can make mortality-based estimates more sensitive to year-to-year fluctuations. The World Bank's outlier analysis flagged 9 extreme values at the 3-standard-deviation level, suggesting some data points warrant additional scrutiny. Finally, this indicator covers males only and does not reflect the mortality experience of the full population.
Methodology
This ranking uses World Bank World Development Indicators data, indicator code SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN, for the reference year 2023. The metric is defined as follows: life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life. The unit is years; higher values indicate lower mortality rates. Coverage includes 216 countries, all of which have data from within the last seven years (100% recency). All 216 datapoints are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The World Bank identified 9 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 1.3%, well below the 50% volatility threshold. The full ranking spans from 53.20 years (Chad, rank 216) to 84.45 years (Monaco, rank 1), a range representing a 58.8% spread. This indicator reflects male life expectancy only and does not account for post-2023 changes in mortality conditions.