Healthcare

Charted: How American Life Expectancy Compares to Its Peers

Published

2 weeks ago

April 10, 2025

Marcus Lu

Graphics/Design:

Anna Diederichs

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Use This Visualization

How American Life Expectancy Compares to Its Peers

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Key Takeaways

American life expectancy at birth is falling further behind that of comparable nations
The gap has increased from 2.2 years in 2000, to 4.1 years in 2023

For decades, Americans could expect to live about as long as their peers in other wealthy countries—but today, that story is changing.

Based on a 2025 analysis by Peterson-KFF, American life expectancy is now lagging significantly behind comparable nations, with the gap growing wider than ever before.

From chronic diseases to healthcare disparities, multiple factors are contributing to Americans dying younger. In this infographic, we take a look at how the U.S. stacks up—and how quickly it’s falling behind.

Data and Discussion

The data we used to create this graphic is included in the table below.

The comparable country group is based on averages across 11 nations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

Year	U.S. (yrs)	Comparable Country Average (yrs)
1980	73.7	74.6
1981	74.1	74.8
1982	74.5	75.1
1983	74.6	75.3
1984	74.7	75.7
1985	74.7	75.7
1986	74.7	76
1987	74.9	76.4
1988	74.9	76.5
1989	75.1	76.7
1990	75.4	76.9
1991	75.5	77.1
1992	75.8	77.3
1993	75.5	77.4
1994	75.7	77.8
1995	75.8	77.8
1996	76.1	78.1
1997	76.5	78.4
1998	76.7	78.6
1999	76.7	78.7
2000	76.8	79
2001	77	79.3
2002	77	79.4
2003	77.2	79.5
2004	77.6	80.1
2005	77.6	80.2
2006	77.8	80.6
2007	78.1	80.8
2008	78.2	81
2009	78.5	81.2
2010	78.7	81.4
2011	78.7	81.6
2012	78.8	81.6
2013	78.8	81.8
2014	78.9	82.1
2015	78.7	81.9
2016	78.7	82.2
2017	78.6	82.3
2018	78.7	82.3
2019	78.8	82.6
2020	77	82
2021	76.4	82.2
2022	77.5	82.2
2023	78.4	82.5

Higher Spending, Lower Life Expectancy

According to Peterson-KFF, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy among large, wealthy countries despite outspending its peers on healthcare.

In 2023, health spending per capita in the U.S. climbed to $13,432, versus $7,393 for the same 11 nation peer group.

This disconnect suggests inefficiencies, unequal access, and other systemic problems in the U.S. healthcare system are preventing resources from translating into longer, healthier lives.