Life expectancy by country
How the United States and the United Kingdom compare at the same exact ages.
One table, two schedules
Life expectancy by sex.
The Social Security Administration publishes a separate remaining-years column for males and for females. This page shows the difference at eleven adult ages, straight from the SSA 2023 period life table.
Population classification · Not a personal estimate · SSA 2023
At a glance, at age 40
Male remaining38.59
Female remaining42.64
Difference4.05
Average remaining years at exact age 40, from the SSA 2023 period life table. The difference shrinks with every later age.
Average remaining years at an exact age. The last column is female remaining years minus male remaining years. We computed that column from the two published columns; it is not part of the release.
| Exact age | Male remaining | Female remaining | Female minus male |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 58.56 | 63.69 | 5.13 |
| 30 | 47.50 | 52.08 | 4.58 |
| 40 | 38.59 | 42.64 | 4.05 |
| 50 | 29.90 | 33.45 | 3.55 |
| 60 | 21.79 | 24.73 | 2.94 |
| 65 | 18.12 | 20.66 | 2.54 |
| 70 | 14.66 | 16.76 | 2.10 |
| 80 | 8.50 | 9.82 | 1.32 |
| 90 | 4.11 | 4.80 | 0.69 |
| 100 | 2.04 | 2.23 | 0.19 |
| 110 | 1.13 | 1.13 | 0.00 |
The full age table holds every published age from 18 to 110, and the country comparison shows the same two columns for the United Kingdom.
The shape of the curve
Why the gap shrinks with age.
At age 18 the female column is 5.13 years ahead. At 40 it is 4.05. At 80 it is 1.32. At 110 the two columns are identical. The gap does not stay still, and that movement is the interesting part.
The difference is not a constant that follows a person through life. It is produced by deaths that happen at particular ages. Reaching 80 means the person has already survived the decades where the male and female schedules diverge most. The people who remain in the 80-year-old population are the ones who did not die earlier, so the surviving difference between the two groups is small.
This is why a comparison at birth and a comparison at 70 are different questions. A period table conditions each row on having reached that exact age. Reading the gap at 18 tells you about the whole adult span ahead. Reading the gap at 80 tells you about the last stretch, after most of the divergence has already been resolved.
It also explains why the two columns never separate forever. At the oldest published ages the table runs out of survivors, and both columns converge on the same small remainder.
Read the column correctly
What the source column does and does not mean.
The Social Security Administration publishes two mortality schedules and labels them male and female. This page reports that classification exactly as published. It makes no inference about gender identity, health status, biology or any individual's circumstances.
Each column is a population average, built from the deaths recorded in one period. It is a summary of a group, and a group average cannot be applied to one member of that group. Knowing that the female column is higher does not tell you anything about a particular woman, and knowing that the male column is lower does not tell you anything about a particular man.
The calculator asks which source column you want to use. That choice selects a published row. It does not describe your health, your habits or your future, and it is not a personal forecast. You can read the full reasoning on the methodology page.
If a population average is not the question you are asking, the life-in-weeks calendar needs no mortality table and no sex column. It counts weeks against a horizon you choose.
Same question, two countries
The gap is not the same everywhere.
The United Kingdom table shows a narrower difference at the youngest adult ages. At age 18 the ONS 2022 to 2024 columns are 61.65 male and 65.44 female, a difference of 3.79 years. The SSA 2023 columns for the same age differ by 5.13 years.
At age 40 the United Kingdom difference is 3.39 years against 4.05 in the United States. By age 80 they have almost met again: 1.37 in the United Kingdom and 1.32 in the United States.
Two statistics offices, two periods, two populations. The releases do not isolate what causes the difference between them, and we do not invent a cause. The honest reading is that the size of the male and female gap is a property of a specific table, not a fixed number that travels between countries.
The full comparison, with both countries side by side, is on the life expectancy by country page.
Source and reproducibility
Two published columns, unmodified.
Every value above comes from the SSA Actuarial Life Table, Period Life Table 2023, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report. We transcribe the male and female life-expectancy columns for exact ages 18 to 110 and round exactly as published. No value is interpolated between ages.
The United Kingdom figures come from the ONS National life tables: UK, the 2022 to 2024 release published on 10 December 2025, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Neither agency reviewed this page or endorses this site. Federal works are generally public domain in the United States; see the USAGov guidance. The transcription hashes and the internal checks are recorded on the methodology page.
Definitions
Life expectancy by sex FAQ
What does this comparison actually measure?
It measures the difference between two published mortality schedules for one population. Each schedule is a population average, so the difference is a population statistic, not a statement about an individual.
Why does the gap close as age rises?
Because the divergence is created by deaths at earlier ages. People who reach 80 have already survived the decades where the two schedules differ most, so the remaining difference is small.
Is this a claim about gender identity?
No. The source releases classify their populations as male and female. This page reports that classification and draws no conclusion about identity, health or any individual person.
Should I pick the column that matches me?
Pick the source column you want to read. The choice selects a published row from an official table. It does not describe your own health and cannot predict your own lifespan.
The gap is a fact about a table, not a fact about you.
Put the number in a countdown →Related reading
Continue with the same data.
Each page below uses the two tables named on this page.
How the SSA life table works
The published columns behind these numbers, and what a period table can and cannot do.
How to read a life expectancy table
The five reading mistakes that make a published table say the wrong thing.