Life expectancy at birth worldwide 1950-2100
Global life expactancy at birth has risen significantly since the mid-1900s, from roughly 46 years in 1950 to 73 years in 2023.
Post-COVID-19 projections
There was a drop of one year during the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2019 and 2021, however it is believed that figures resumed upon their previous trajectory by 2023. By the end of the century it is believed that global life expectancy from birth will exceed 82 years, although growth will slow in the coming decades as many of the more-populous Asian countries reach demographic maturity. However, there is still expected to be a wide gap between various regions at the end of the 2100s, with the Europe and North America expected to have life expectancies around 90 years, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to be in the low-70s.
The Great Leap Forward
While a decrease of one year during the COVID-19 pandemic may appear insignificant, this is the largest decline in life expectancy since the "Great Leap Forward" in China in 1958, which caused global life expactancy to fall by almost four years between by 1960. The "Great Leap Forward" was a series of modernizing reforms, which sought to rapidly transition China's agrarian economy into an industrial economy, but mismanagement led to tens of millions of deaths through famine and disease.
