Global life expectancy rises by more than a decade since 1980

Story: 2016 C.E.  |  Last updated: October 6, 2016

In 1980 C.E., the average person on Earth could expect to live to around 61 years. By 2015 C.E., that number had climbed past 69 for men and nearly 75 for women — a gain of more than a decade of human life within a single generation. That shift, documented in one of the most comprehensive health studies ever conducted, reflects what coordinated global effort, medical innovation, and basic public health infrastructure can actually accomplish.

Key findings

• Global life expectancy: The world gained more than a decade of life expectancy between 1980 C.E. and 2015 C.E., with men reaching 69.0 years and women reaching 74.8 years on average.
• Infectious disease mortality: Death rates fell significantly for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diarrheal diseases — among the conditions that have historically driven early death in lower-income countries.
• Healthy life expectancy: The number of years people can expect to live in good health rose by 6.1 years in 191 of 195 countries between 1990 C.E. and 2015 C.E.

What the Global Burden of Disease study measured

The Global Burden of Disease study, led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, analyzed 249 causes of death, 315 diseases and injuries, and 79 risk factors across 195 countries and territories. It is among the most detailed attempts ever made to understand what is actually killing people — and what is keeping them sick but alive.

Published in The Lancet, the 2016 C.E. findings covered trends from 1990 C.E. to 2015 C.E. The study’s director, Christopher Murray, described the results as a picture of “patchy health gains across the world, driven in part by economic development.” His framing matters: wealth helps, but it does not fully explain outcomes. Some countries improved far faster than their income or education levels would predict. Others — including the United States — remained far less healthy than their resources should allow.

Where progress has been most striking

The largest gains came from beating back diseases that once killed millions every year. Childhood mortality dropped sharply — deaths among children under five have halved since 1990 C.E. Progress on reducing unsafe water and sanitation contributed meaningfully to that trend, as did expanded vaccine coverage and improved treatment for common infections.

Cardiovascular disease and cancer death rates also fell, though more slowly. These are diseases where treatment matters enormously, and the spread of medical knowledge and basic interventions has made a measurable difference even in places with limited resources.

The World Health Organization’s sustained campaign against malaria is one example of the coordinated international effort behind these numbers. Between 2000 C.E. and 2015 C.E., malaria death rates fell by roughly 60% globally — a figure that represents millions of lives, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Lasting impact

Studies like this one do more than count. They redirect resources. The Global Burden of Disease framework has shaped how health ministries, international donors, and research institutions prioritize funding and intervention. By naming what is actually driving death and disability — country by country, condition by condition — the data creates pressure to act on the right problems.

The finding that healthy life expectancy rose by 6.1 years across 191 countries is particularly significant. It means the world is not just adding years to life — it is, in many places, adding healthier years. That matters for individuals, for families, and for economies that depend on people being able to work, care for others, and participate in civic life.

The study also provided evidence that progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals on health was already underway in 2016 C.E., giving policymakers credible baseline data for the targets set that year.

Blindspots and limits

The gains are real, but they are uneven in ways that matter. Healthy life expectancy did not rise as fast as overall life expectancy — meaning people are living more years, but more of those years come with illness or disability. More than 275,000 women died in pregnancy or childbirth in 2015 C.E., the vast majority from preventable causes, a figure that underscores how unevenly the benefits of medical progress are distributed.

Non-communicable diseases — cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes — now account for seven out of every 10 deaths worldwide, and they are rising in countries that had previously focused almost entirely on infectious disease. The study’s data on the United States is a particular caution: among wealthy regions, North America had the worst healthy life expectancy at birth, driven in part by the opioid crisis and diet-related illness. The full Lancet study makes clear that income and resources do not automatically produce health — choices about policy, food systems, and drug regulation matter just as much.

Read more

For more on this story, see: Reuters — Global health improving but progress patchy

For more from Good News for Humankind, see:

• Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995
• Alzheimer’s risk cut in half by drug in landmark prevention trial
• The Good News for Humankind archive on global health

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