The nationality with the shortest life expectancy consistently ranks around countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with recent data pointing to Chad, Lesotho, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Somalia, often hovering near or below 60 years, heavily impacted by disease, poverty, conflict, and poor healthcare access, though Afghanistan has also recently shown very low figures.
So, what country has the lowest life expectancy? According to UN data, Somalia ranks at the bottom, with an average life expectancy of just 59 years. Most of the countries with the shortest lifespans are in sub-Saharan Africa, where a combination of interrelated challenges significantly impacts public health.
American Indians in Western and Midwestern states have the shortest life expectancy as of 2021, 63.6 years. That's more than 20 years shorter than Asian Americans nationwide, who can expect to live to 84, according to a recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The Japanese have the highest life expectancy at birth among the G7 countries. The higher life expectancy of the Japanese is mainly due to fewer deaths from ischemic heart disease, including myocardial infarction, and cancer (especially breast and prostate).
East Timor: With an average height of 155.5 cm (5 ft 1 in), East Timor tops the list as the country with the shortest people.
I'm not done with the physical advantages. Research shows the heart and joints (link in German) of short people are less strained than those of tall people. Why? Short people have a lower blood volume and body mass.
Timor-Leste tops the list at 5.3 feet, followed by Laos, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea, each averaging around 5.4 feet. Several other nations, including Mozambique, Nepal, Guatemala, Yemen, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, record an average height of 5.5 feet.
Key statistics
Life expectancy at birth was 81.1 years for males and 85.1 years for females in 2022–2024, reflecting no change for either males or females from the previous year (2021–2023).
Most of the countries with the longest life expectancies in 2022 were wealthy nations in Asia and Europe, with Liechtenstein and Japan topping the list at around 84 years.
It's all about finding balance. The PLOS Medicine study found 3 food groups that you should consume less of to live longer. These are sugar-sweetened drinks, refined grains, and red and processed meats. Lucky for us, there's often an easy healthier swap.
Whites are usually taken as the standard against which other groups are compared, but they are not necessarily in the best health. Hispanics appear to be healthier than whites on a number of measures, though not all. Asians are generally in better health than any other group (Hummer et al., 2004).
Certain lifestyle habits can negatively affect your physical and mental health, shortening your potential lifespan.
Chronic surges of stress hormones can take a significant toll on your overall well-being, setting the stage for life-shortening health issues like cardiovascular disease and cancer. Thankfully, relaxation can curb those hormonal spikes to support longevity.
The top 10 healthiest countries in the world
In addition, articles comparing life expectancy of athletes compared to that of nonathletes were reviewed. Results of 13 studies describing eight different cohorts suggest that regular physical activity is associated with an increase of life expectancy by 0.4 to 6.9 years.
Monaco is the country with the highest median age in the world. The population has a median age of around 57 years, which is around six years more than in Japan and Saint Pierre and Miquelon – the other countries that make up the top three.
As of 2021, provisional data show that life expectancy was lowest for AIAN and Black people at 65.2 years and 70.8 years, respectively, compared to 76.4 years for White people and 77.7 years for Hispanic people. It was highest for Asian people at 83.5 years. Data were not available for NHOPI people.
Australia has high quality of life, and cities like Sydney and Melbourne are often in the top 10 in terms of their livability. Australian culture has a British foundation, but people are less formal than in the UK on the whole. It's easy to strike up conversations in Australia and people are often willing to help.
Specifically, Australia has a 4 to 5-year life expectancy advantage over the USA and a 1 to 2.5-year advantage over Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. Canada had the second-highest life expectancy for most of the period between 1990 and 2019.
Dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) is now Australia's leading cause of death overall, closely followed by ischaemic heart disease, with the gap narrowing as the population ages; however, coronary heart disease remains the top killer for males, while dementia leads for females. Other major causes include cerebrovascular disease (stroke), lung cancer, and chronic lower respiratory diseases (COPD).
A variety of studies have shown that unmarried adults have a higher probability of early death than those that are married.19,20 However, most of these studies do not differentiate those who are separated and divorced from those that were never married.
4 Top Ways to Live Longer
On the health side, being short means less chance of blood clots and a lower risk for many cancers. Research also shows that less height sometimes means longer lifetime. So, contrary to what many may think, us “shorties” have several useful benefits that others do not.
With an average height of 5 feet 3 inches for men and 4 feet 11.5 inches for women, Timor-Leste is the shortest country in the world.
For most individuals, though, height is controlled largely by a combination of genetic variants that each have more modest effects on height, plus a smaller contribution from environmental factors (such as nutrition). More than 700 such gene variants have been discovered and many more are expected to be identified.