The Years Between
See how the expected years of life for women and men have changed around the world.
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How to explore
Life expectancy estimates reflect death rates in a particular year. Compare women’s and men’s estimates across places and time.
Choose a place
Start with India to see how its two estimates changed since 1960.
Move through time
Change the year to see the gap between the two estimates and the place’s position among others.
Look across places
Compare the smallest and largest gaps, then see the middle of the full set over time.
- Life expectancy at birth
- The years a newborn would live if that year’s death rates stayed the same throughout life; it is not a forecast.
- Gap
- Female life expectancy minus male life expectancy, in years. A negative value means the male estimate is higher.
- Median
- The middle value after places are sorted; each place counts once, regardless of population.
- Middle 80%
- The range from the 10th to the 90th percentile of places with data in that year.
Life expectancy at birth · 1960–2024
The years
between.
See how the expected years of life for women and men have changed around the world.
These are estimates based on the death rates in each year. They do not predict how long a particular baby will live.
Choose a place
Watch the two estimates rise, fall, or move apart. Try India to see how their order changed since 1960.
Women and men in United States
Each line shows life expectancy at birth in years. Move the year to see the distance between the two estimates; this also updates the comparisons below.
Women · solid line and circleMen · dashed line and square
The vertical guide marks 2024. The difference is women minus men, so a minus sign means the men’s estimate is higher. Missing years leave breaks in the lines.
Show selected years in a table
| Year | Women | Men | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 73.10 | 66.60 | +6.50 |
| 1970 | 74.70 | 67.10 | +7.60 |
| 1980 | 77.40 | 70.00 | +7.40 |
| 1990 | 78.80 | 71.80 | +7.00 |
| 2000 | 79.30 | 74.10 | +5.20 |
| 2010 | 81.00 | 76.20 | +4.80 |
| 2020 | 79.90 | 74.20 | +5.70 |
| 2024 | 81.40 | 76.50 | +4.90 |
How does United States compare?
In 2024, 111 of 217 places have a gap at least as large as the one shown here. Each place counts once, regardless of population. Choose a row to follow its history above.
Bars start at zero. A leftward bar means the men’s estimate is higher. The number gives the difference in years.
Your place: United States · +4.90 years
The list is the ten largest or ten smallest gaps among places with both estimates in 2024. It does not explain the reasons for a gap.
The middle of the world’s places
The dark line is the median gap: the middle place after sorting. The shaded band covers the middle 80% of places, from the 10th to the 90th percentile. Changing the year moves the guide.
Middle 80% of placesMedian · solid lineUnited States · dashed line
The band shows variation among places, not measurement uncertainty. The dashed line follows United States. These are equally weighted places, not a world population average.
Why this exists
The question
How did the female–male life expectancy gap change across World Bank countries and economies from 1960 to 2024?
What to try
Choose a place to compare women’s and men’s estimates over time.
Method and limits
About the data
I retrieved World Bank World Development Indicators SP.DYN.LE00.FE.IN and SP.DYN.LE00.MA.IN through its public API on September 19, 2026; the API reported a July 13, 2026 update. The World Bank lists the UN Population Division, national statistical offices, and Eurostat as underlying sources. The reduction script removes regional and income-group aggregates using the country API’s region field, joins the two indicators by three-letter code and year, retains 1960–2024, and rounds each published estimate to two decimal places. The checked-in snapshot has 217 countries and economies with at least one female and male observation. All 217 have both values in 2024; 215 have both in 1960. Gaps are female minus male. For each year I sort available gaps and calculate the median and the 10th and 90th percentiles with linear interpolation. Each place receives equal weight; these are not population-weighted world estimates. Rounding can change a displayed gap by up to 0.01 year. The page loads only this local snapshot. Life expectancy is a period measure based on observed and modeled mortality, not the actual lifespan of a birth cohort. Data quality and methods differ by place and year; the comparison cannot explain why a gap changed.
Skills used
- Data engineering
- Statistical reasoning
- Visualization
- Interaction design
- Visual design
- Editorial storytelling
- Accessibility
- Performance
What the data shows
- In the 2024 snapshot, the female life expectancy estimate exceeds the male estimate in all 217 included countries and economies. The median gap is 4.95 years, with each place counted once.
- India’s rounded estimates show a male advantage of 1.42 years in 1960 and a female advantage of 3.13 years in 2024. These values describe period life expectancy, not the fate of people born in those years.
- The United States’ gap narrows from 6.50 years in 1960 to 4.90 years in 2024; the estimates for both sexes rise over that span.