Countries With the Lowest Life Expectancy

Every country with a figure for life expectancy, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Nigeria (54.6), Chad (55.2) and Central African Republic (57.7). The middle country of the 217 has 74.7.

What this measures

Life expectancy at birth, total (years). Source: World Bank. For this measure, higher is better.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2024–2024. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on life expectancy

• Countries With the Highest Life Expectancy
• Life expectancy by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Infant Mortality
• Countries With the Lowest Under-5 Mortality
• Countries With the Lowest Health Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Suicide Rates
• Countries With the Lowest Hospital Beds
• Countries With the Lowest Basic Water Access
• Countries With the Lowest Basic Sanitation
• Countries With the Lowest Child Stunting

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.