Global life expectancy bounces back to near pre-pandemic levels

• Global life expectancy is close to the levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

• According to the UN health agency’s latest Global Health Estimates, life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, just shy of the 73.4 years recorded in 2019.

• The estimates, which cover trends in death and disability worldwide by region and by country from 2000 to 2023, draw on various sources including national vital registration data and estimates from WHO technical programmes alongside UN partner organizations.

• The report provides a picture of how health has changed across countries and regions between 2000 and 2023, including trends in life expectancy, causes of death and disease burden. 

What is life expectancy?

• Life expectancy is the most commonly used measure to describe population health and reflects the overall mortality level of a population. 

• Life expectancy measures how long, on average, a person is expected to live based on current age and sex-specific death rates. 

• In summarising mortality patterns, life expectancy is often expressed as the number of years of life, from birth, a person is expected to live.

Key points of the report:

• Healthy life expectancy – the years people live in good health – has recovered more slowly, reaching 62.8 years in 2023, still 0.4 years below its 2019 level.

• Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) accounted for 74 per cent of deaths globally in 2023, compared with 58 per cent in 2000. 

• Eight of the world’s ten leading causes of death were NCDs in 2023.

• In 2023, for the first time, communicable diseases accounted for less than half of all deaths in low-income countries, marking another step in the global epidemiological transition. 

• Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide. 

• In 2023, ischaemic heart disease alone caused approximately 9.5 million deaths and 210 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), measured in years of healthy life lost. 

• There has been substantial progress in reducing the burden of ischaemic heart disease since 2000 in many parts of the world. 

• However, increases in risk at an individual level were recorded in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions, highlighting persistent inequalities in cardiovascular health between populations. 

• Other chronic conditions are also becoming increasingly prominent. 

• The risk of dying from diabetes has risen substantially since 2000, particularly in South-East Asia. 

• Alzheimer disease and other dementias have also risen sharply, for example dementia became the fifth leading cause of death globally in 2023, compared with 19th in 2000. Global deaths from dementia tripled over this period. 

• Mental health conditions are another important part of the changing global health picture.

• Between 2019 and 2023, the global age-standardized DALY rate increased by approximately 20 per cent for depressive disorders and nearly 45 per cent for anxiety disorders. 

• Together, these conditions accounted for an estimated 110 million years of healthy life loss through premature death and disability in 2023.

• Drug use disorders showed similar trends across regions. Between 2000 and 2023, the WHO Region of the Americas recorded the largest increases in risk of mortality and healthy life loss while the Western Pacific saw substantial declines. 

• Taken together, the estimates show a global health landscape that is both recovering from the pandemic and continuing to evolve.