How long will I live?
This calculator uses CDC life tables to show how many more years, on average, people of your age and sex can expect to live.
Average years left for a 40-year-old woman in the U.S.
42.9
Half of women your age live past 85. One in four live past 91, and one in ten reach 96.
On average that adds up to about 42 more birthdays, 2,239 weekends, 530 full moons and 10 presidential elections.
- 15before 70
- 18in their 70s
- 35in their 80s
- 29in their 90s
- 3100 or older
| Reaching age | Chance |
|---|---|
| 70 | 85% |
| 80 | 67% |
| 90 | 32% |
| 100 | 3% |
Period life tables: CDC/NCHS U.S. life tables, 2024. Averages for a group, not a forecast for you.
Ages 35 to 44, U.S., 2024. Share of all deaths in that age group.
- Accidents (unintentional injuries)30%
- Heart disease12%
- Cancer12%
- Suicide9%
- Liver disease and cirrhosis5%
Source: CDC/NCHS final death data, 2024. All age groups
One square for each week, one row for each year, up to 100. Filled squares are weeks you have lived. Blue squares run to the average for your age. Empty squares are years some people your age still live.
Last checked .
It is an average for a large group of people, not a forecast for you. It never predicts when you will die. Your own health, habits and circumstances can put you well above or below the average.
Quick facts
- U.S. life expectancy at birth was 79.0 years in 2024 (NCHS U.S. life tables, 2024).
- U.S. women could expect to live 81.4 years at birth in 2024, and men 76.5 (NCHS U.S. life tables, 2024).
- Americans who reach 65 live another 19.7 years on average, at 2024 death rates (NCHS U.S. life tables, 2024).
- About 59% of people born in the U.S. would reach age 80 at 2024 death rates (NCHS U.S. life tables, 2024).
Your next step
Questions people ask
- When will I die?
- Nobody can tell you that, and this calculator doesn't try. It shows the average years remaining for people like you in CDC data, not a prediction for you.
- What is the average life expectancy in the U.S.?
- Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 79.0 years in 2024, according to CDC/NCHS, up 0.6 year from 2023.
- Why is my life expectancy different from the national average?
- The national figure is life expectancy at birth. Yours is the average remaining at your current age, for your sex and state, so it starts from a different point.
More questions
- How accurate is a life expectancy calculator?
- It's accurate as an average for a large group of people. It can't tell you how long one person will live, and it assumes death rates stay at today's level.
- Can I increase my life expectancy?
- Some things are in your control. Quitting smoking is the clearest example: the CDC says smokers live at least 10 years less on average, and quitting helps at any age.
About these numbers
Where do these numbers come from?
The national figures come from United States Life Tables, 2024, published by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics in August 2026. NCHS built them from final 2024 death records, Census Bureau population estimates and Medicare data for people aged 66 to 99.
The state figures come from the most recent U.S. State Life Tables, which cover 2022. State tables come out later than the national ones.
What does life expectancy actually mean?
Life expectancy is the average number of years of life left at a given age. It comes from a period life table. NCHS describes this as what would happen to an imaginary group of people if they lived their whole lives under the death rates of one year.
The table assumes today's death rates never change. If health care keeps improving, real lifetimes will tend to be longer than the table says.
The figure is also an average, so many people live well past it and many don't reach it.
The age you can expect to reach goes up as you get older. Some people born the same year as you have already died. Because you have lived past those years, the average for your age group starts from a later point.
What changes how long you live?
The calculator uses only age, sex and state, because those are what the CDC tables are split by. Many other things matter for one person.
- Smoking. The CDC says life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. Quitting before age 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%, and quitting helps at any age.
- Sex. Women live longer than men on average. In 2024, life expectancy at birth was 81.4 years for females and 76.5 years for males, according to NCHS.
- Where you live. Life expectancy differs from state to state, which is why the calculator lets you pick one.