Billionaires Like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos hoard cash and property and, increasingly, cause the rest of us to die more quickly than citizens of other countries.
Many of the countries with longer life expectancies adopt the Nordic model of a vigorous social safety net in a market economy, while Billionaires steadfastly refuse to provide adequate and life saving Safety Net to Americans.
Is it merely a correlation or a cause and effect?
In 1980, life expectancy at birth in the U.S. and in comparably large and wealthy countries was similar, but over recent decades, life expectancy has improved by much more in peer nations than it has in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased mortality and premature death rates in the U.S. by more than it did in most peer countries, widening a gap that already existed before the pandemic.
This chart collection examines how life expectancy in the U.S. compares to that of other similarly large and wealthy countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Using provisional 2021 estimates, we also assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected life expectancy in the U.S. compared to peer countries.
We find life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 2.7 years from 2019 to 2021, whereas in peer countries’ life expectancies fell by an average of just 0.2 years in this period. COVID-19 has erased two decades of life expectancy growth in the U.S., whereas the average life expectancy for comparable countries has decreased only marginally, to 2018 levels.
From 2020 to 2021, life expectancy continued to decline in the U.S. while rebounding in most comparable countries
Life expectancy in the U.S. and peer countries generally increased from 1980-2019, but decreased in most countries in 2020 due to COVID-19. From 2020 to 2021, life expectancy at birth began to rebound in most comparable countries while it continued to decline in the U.S.
| Similar Countries Ranked by Life Expectancy | |
|---|---|
| Country Name | 2023 Life Expectancy |
| Hong Kong | 85.29 |
| Japan | 85.03 |
| Macao | 84.68 |
| Switzerland | 84.25 |
| Singapore | 84.07 |
| Italy | 84.00 |
| Spain | 83.99 |
| Australia | 83.94 |
| Channel Islands | 83.60 |
| Iceland | 83.52 |
| South Korea | 83.50 |
| Israel | 83.49 |
| Sweden | 83.33 |
| France | 83.13 |
| Malta | 83.06 |
| Canada | 82.96 |
| Norway | 82.94 |
| Ireland | 82.81 |
| New Zealand | 82.80 |
| Greece | 82.80 |
| Luxembourg | 82.78 |
| Netherlands | 82.78 |
| Portugal | 82.65 |
| Finland | 82.48 |
| Belgium | 82.17 |
| Austria | 82.05 |
| Germany | 81.88 |
| Slovenia | 81.85 |
| United Kingdom | 81.77 |
| Cyprus | 81.51 |
| Denmark | 81.40 |
| Taiwan | 81.04 |
| Guam | 80.74 |
| Chile | 80.74 |
| Qatar | 80.73 |
| Puerto Rico | 80.69 |
| Barbados | 79.64 |
| Curacao | 79.41 |
| Poland | 79.27 |
| Estonia | 79.18 |
| United States | 79.11 |
| Panama | 79.10 |
| Croatia | 79.02 |
| Oman | 78.58 |
| UAE | 78.46 |
| Uruguay | 78.43 |
| French Polynesia | 78.23 |
| New Caledonia | 78.16 |
| Bahrain | 77.73 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 77.47 |
| Hungary | 77.31 |
| Argentina | 77.17 |
| Aruba | 76.78 |
| Lithuania | 76.41 |
| Kuwait | 75.85 |
| Latvia | 75.73 |
| Saudi Arabia | 75.69 |
| Bahamas | 74.28 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 73.91 |
| Seychelles | 73.74 |
