Top Ten Countries With the Most Impressive Life Expectancies

In case you're wondering, the life expectancy of a country is the average age someone lives before they go caputzkies. For example, the United States has an average life expectancy of 78 or so years. That is not very impressive, and that doesn't get on the list. Canada has about 83 average years. The United Kingdom has just under 82. Anyways, here I'll be ranking the top ten countries with the most impressive life Expectancies, whether it's just really high or something you wouldn't expect.

Bonus fact: the average life expectancy around the world is 73.2 years for both genders, 75.6 for females, and 70.8 for males. Enjoy!
The Top Ten
1 Monaco - 89.4 Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe.

It's insane how extraordinarily enormous the life expectancy of this little country is. Monaco boasts a life expectancy of almost 5 years more than the second highest life expectancy of a country and well over 15 years more than the average life expectancy of the entire world. If you want to live long, go to Monaco! Just kidding. Monaco is apparently so high due to really good health care and great banks, and people there are the richest on average in the world. Monaco is actually the second smallest country in the world behind the infamous Vatican city, and while it may not be super impressive to you as smaller countries tend to have better life expectancies, Monaco is still extremely high when it comes to life and deserves first place. Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy more years of life, at least in this case!

2 Japan - 85.03 Japan is an island country in East Asia in the Pacific Ocean. It lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland (east of China, Korea, Russia) and stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and near Taiwan in the southwest.

Japan has a huge capital city called Tokyo, other cities in Japan include Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya and Sendai. It's close to South Korea, which is on the North West of it. It has a large population of 126.86 million people (Statistics Bureau of Japan. Retrieved April 27, 2016). ...read more.

Japan has the highest life expectancy in the entire world of countries with over 100 000 people. Monaco has more, but it's a super tiny country, and Hong Kong does, but it's normally not recognised as a country and there's a lot of conflict and controversy over whether it's a part of China or not. I opted not to include Hong Kong as a country, so Japan is the country with the highest. It's officially got a life expectancy of just over 85 years, which is extremely impressive - Japan is a very densely populated country since most of the people are squeezed in cities between mountains and also a very populated country in general, so you wouldn't expect it to be as populous. Congratulations to people in Japan, but you won't be dying any time soon!

I'm not that surprised because from what I've known, most of the oldest people in the world come (or came) from Japan, but it's still incredibly impressive.

3 Switzerland - 84.25 Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. ...read more.

It's honestly a little ironic when I think of it because their symbol is a plus sign with red and white - as if a health symbol, and they've got such a high life expectancy. Just thought that was kind of funny. Now, Switzerland, (excluding Hong Kong and Macao and those controversial state/city/countries) has the 4th highest life expectancy of any country in the entire world, behind Japan, San Marino, and Monaco, with 84.25. This is pretty good because they're a sizeable country too and if you had to guess which countries had the highest life expectancies, you wouldn't guess Switzerland. Congrats to them!

4 Algeria - 76.69 Algeria, is a sovereign Arab & Amazigh country located in North Africa. Algerian peoples Speaks Arab and Tamzigh and some of them speaks French.Algiers is capital and most populous city in Algeria, located in the far north of the country. With an area of 2,381 741 square kilometres, Algeria is the tenth largest country in the world, the first in Africa, the Arab world and the Mediterranean, and the second in the Islamic world. Also, Algeria has a famous food called couscous, which they eat every Friday because it is one of the symbols of Algeria, The most beautiful sunrise and sunset in the world The way to the summit of Assekrem in Tamanrasset of Algeria.

Oh, 76.69, you say? But sloth, that's not impressive! It's probably not even in the top fifty countries with the highest live expectancies! You're right, it's 63rd, to be precise, but how good it is doesn't always determine how impressive it is. There's a reason I put Algeria on here, and it's because out of every single country in Africa, which is the continent with the most people, by the way, this has the highest life expectancy, and along with Morocco and Tunisia, both in the high 70s, are basically untouchable by the other African countries, some of which's life expectancies are sadly even less than 50 years per person! Pretty impressive to me, at least.

5 Italy - 84.01 Italy, (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe.

Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2. With almost 62 million inhabitants, it is the 3rd most populous EU member state. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City. The Capital and largest city is Rome. Other major cities are Milano, Naples, Turino, Venice, Florence. Italy's official language is Italian. ...read more.

Italy has one of the highest life Expectancies in the entire world, with just over 84 years per person, around 86 for females and almost 82 for males, to be precise. Italy is one of the most awesome countries in the world, and I was actually going to go there if it weren't for stupid Covid which cancelled the trip, but we're getting off topic. Anyways, out of extremely populous countries, by which I mean countries with over 10 million people, Italy is one of only two countries with over 84 years average life expectancy, behind Japan. Pretty impressive, huh?

Italy is full of old people. It's basically a retirement home.

6 San Marino - 85.42 San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy, situated on the Italian Peninsula on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains. San Marino covers a land area of just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi), and has a population of 33,562 The country's capital city, City of San Marino, is located atop Mount Titan, while its largest settlement is Dogana. San Marino's official language is Italian. ...read more.

Another impressive country with a very high life expectancy is San Marino, though you've probably not heard of it. Why? Because it's almost as small as Monaco. It's actually a really tiny Island in the bay made up of Italy's curve that they for some reason decided to make a country. It has the super high life expectancy of 85.42 years, which is as far as I can tell (if I forgot some tiny country called Chorguda Borlada the 2nd, give me a break!), the third highest life expectancy of any country in the world. That's super impressive. If it weren't for the fact San Marino is so tiny, it would be really high on the list

7 Spain - 83.99 Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in southwestern Europe with parts of territory in the Atlantic Ocean and across the Mediterranean Sea. The largest part of Spain is situated on the Iberian Peninsula; its territory also includes the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and several minor overseas territories also scattered along the Moroccan coast of the Alboran Sea. The country's mainland is bordered to the south by Gibraltar; to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea; to the north by France, Andorra and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.

Dang it, Spain! You just missed out on Italy's spot, with only 0.02 less in average years, which is actually a pretty big amount, but still. Spain's life expectancy is pretty similar to Italy, and probably for similar reasons as well, but it's still quite an impressive life expectancy. People in Spain may have just a very healthy atmosphere or better, fresher foods, or just a really good bank or something, but, whatever the reason is, they live a pretty long time there. Think of their life expectancy as 84 years, because it's basically there.

8 Israel - 83.49 Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea, and shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest; it is also bordered by the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally.

Israel is not quite in the top ten countries with the highest life expectancy, but it is close, mind you. And the score isn't exactly what's so impressive about it, it's the circumstances. Israel is, well, sadly known as a "violent" country and when someone says it you may think of other middle eastern countries and even terrorists like Osama. There was actually a big war in Israel a while ago. So it definitely isn't something you'd expect on a list of countries with the highest life expectancies, so I had to give it a spot on here.

9 Australia - 83.94 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

This enormous country that's sometimes even considered to be its own continent, (the correct term for the continent is Oceania, which consists of not only Australia but New Zealand and the other small islands in the South Pacific ocean, Australia itself is a country) has one of the absolute highest life expectancies of all time. This country is known to be pretty chill about everything and good, too, much like Canada, but a country of such size wouldn't be expected to have such a high life expectancy.

10 South Korea - 83.50 South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. South Korea claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. It has a population of 51.75 million, of which roughly half live in the Seoul Capital Area, the fifth largest metropolis in the world. Other major cities include Incheon, Busan, and Daegu. ...read more.

You're probably also surprised that this country made its way onto the list. The reason is because, unfortunately, people group the two Koreas together normally and let North Korea define South Korea. In reality, South Korea is a really cool country with the largest toilet theme park (that's honestly all I remember about it right now, I'm sorry) and is on very bad terms with their Northern counterparts. South Korea has one of the highest life Expectancies in the world, which is something most people wouldn't expect.

The Contenders
11 Mexico - 75.24 Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic located in North America. The country is located between the U.S. and Central America, and is known for its Pacific and Gulf of Mexico beaches and its diverse landscape of mountains, deserts, and jungles.
12 Lesotho - 50.7 years Lesotho, officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is an enclaved, landlocked country in southern Africa completely surrounded by South Africa. It is by far the largest of the world's three independent states completely surrounded by the territory of another country, with Vatican City and San Marino being ...read more.

Well, it didn't say anything about impressively low life expectancies. Here, the average life expectancy for males is not even 48 years old.

13 North Korea - 72.6 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, is a country in Eastern Asia. Its capital is Pyongyang. It is currently ruled by the Juche leader Kim Jong-Un, after inheriting the title from his father, Kim Jong-Il, who in turn inherited it from his father, Kim Il-Sung.

North Korea's population as of February 18th, 2017 is 25,360,273.

North Korea is the third most corrupt country in the world, according to the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index). It is also ranked 150th out of 163 nations in the Institution for Economics & Peace's Global Peace Index, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world. ...read more.

No, usually 22. You're gonna disagree with Kim Jong Un at something and you'll die extra early.

14 Syria - 72.7 Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a Western Asian country located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions), and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, ...read more.

For what it is, I am sure people would have expected at most a little more than half this amount.

15 Canada - 82.96 Canada is a country in North America that is next to the United States, and it's the 2nd largest country in the world by area (size is 9.985 million km²). This country has 10 provinces, and 3 territories. Canada became a dominion on July 1, 1867. Its 10 provinces are: Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Its 3 territories are: Yukon, Northwest territories, and Nunavut. Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, St. John's, and Fredericton are major cities in the country. Canada's capital city, Ottawa, is in the southeastern province of Ontario, near the city of Montreal ...read more.

Canada is the North-American country with the highest life expectancy by far, which has to count for something

16 El Salvador - 73.63 El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America.
17 Iceland - 82.86 Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its surrounding areas) is home to over 65% of the population. Iceland is the only part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that rises above sea level, and its central volcanic plateau is erupting almost constantly. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence ...read more.

It's impressive how a small island like Iceland got 82.86. Algeria should be below this.

18 Andorra - 82.8 Years Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ...read more.
19 Norway - 82.76 years
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