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Life expectancy calculator

Life expectancy calculator

Calculate your life expectancy

What's the average life expectancy in the UK? If you want to know how long you might live, our life expectancy calculator could give you an idea.

The results aren't meant to be taken as fact - it's an estimate, based on the same kind of data that insurers and actuaries use every day. But it's still worth knowing. Things like your lifestyle, health, and family history all feed into how insurers assess your risk - and ultimately what you pay for life insurance. So it can be a useful starting point when thinking about the cover you might need.

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Life expectancy calculator

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This is an estimation of your life expectancy based on UK averages. It should not be taken as fact.

How does the life expectancy calculator work?

To use our life expectancy calculator, all you have to do is enter your age and birth sex into the tool.

Then, we’ll use mortality rate data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to estimate how long someone with your characteristics might live.

Our calculator doesn’t take into account things like health, lifestyle, or family medical history. It’s based purely on national averages. So it’s worth taking your result with a pinch of salt.

Remember: it’s a guide, not a guarantee.

What is life expectancy?

Life expectancy means how long the average newborn is expected to live from birth.

The figures are published by the ONS or the World Health Organisation (WHO,) and they’re calculated based on a range of factors. For example, current death rates for men and women, as well as the age that people die.

Even though the data is a probability - not a prediction - it can still be useful to know. Particularly if you’re at a later stage of life and trying to plan your finances.

Let’s say you're a woman in the UK who is 65 years old. According to life expectancy figures, you can expect to live another 18 years, on average. So, it probably makes sense to have a pension income in place to cover this period at least.

How does the life expectancy calculator work?

When working out the price of your life insurance premium, insurers use life expectancy data to help them assess risk.

Basically, the longer you’re expected to live, the lower your premiums are likely to be. And having a shorter life expectancy can often lead to higher premiums or limited cover options.

Insurers don’t just look at ONS figures. Typically, they’ll ask you questions about your age, health, lifestyle and family medical history.

If you need life insurance for smokers or you have a pre-existing health condition, it might cost you more to get insured. And, in some cases, improving your health or adjusting your lifestyle choices can lead to better rates.

It’s good to know that life expectancy only affects your premium - it won’t affect your payout amount.

What our life insurance expert says

"Most people are surprised to learn that lifestyle changes can actually improve your life insurance premium - not just when you first apply, but over time. If you've quit smoking, lost weight, or got a serious health condition under control, it's worth going back to your insurer or shopping around.

Your premium isn't set in stone. Life expectancy isn't just a number you're handed - for many people, it's something you can genuinely influence, and insurers are increasingly taking that into account."

Lee Davies Home & lifestyle insurance expert

What factors affect life expectancy?

Our life expectancy tool uses population-wide data to calculate your result. But what factors affect your personal life expectancy? Here are some of the big hitters:

Age

The older you are, the higher the risk of health issues which could lead to illness.

Gender

Life expectancy can vary between men and women. In the UK, women live 4 years longer than men on average.

Overall health

Existing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes can impact your overall longevity.

Lifestyle habits

Smoking, alcohol use, exercise levels and your diet all play a role in how long you can expect to live.

Weight and fitness

Being overweight or underweight can increase health risks, as can being inactive.

Family medical history

Your genetics can influence the likelihood of certain conditions, impacting your overall life expectancy.

Occupation

Some jobs carry higher risks. For example, if you work in a hazardous environment or your role is high-stress.

Mental health and wellbeing

Stress levels and mental health can affect physical health over time.

Access to heallthcare

Going to regular check-ups and getting early treatment can make a big difference to health outcomes.

Need more help?

How can I improve my life expectancy?

Looking at the factors that influence life expectancy, it’s clear that some of them simply can’t be changed – for example your age.

Nor can you alter the fact that there’s a history of certain illnesses in your family. But there are steps you can take to address issues such as this.

If one side of your family seems to be susceptible to heart disease, you could adopt lifestyle changes to address this. For example, you could cut down on fatty foods and do suitable forms of exercise.

Similarly, if you’re not married you could try to cultivate a social circle to provide you with more emotional support. Making changes to your lifestyle in order to improve your life expectancy can be more straightforward. As well as eating more healthily, you could look to stop smoking or cut down the amount of alcohol you drink.

Does life expectancy affect life insurance?

The factors that dictate life expectancy are used by insurance companies when they set life insurance premiums.

The most common type of life insurance is level term life insurance. This runs for a fixed period and is normally designed to help cover major expenses such as a mortgage and childcare costs.

To set the price of this kind of policy, the insurer needs to know what the chances are of the policyholder dying during the period the cover is in place. To work this out, they consider the same factors applied in calculating life expectancy.

Life insurance providers are likely to ask you to provide a range of information such as:

Your age
Your marital status
Details about out your lifestyle
Your current and past health
Any family history of illness.

The more that these factors point to a lower life expectancy, the more you can expect to pay in life insurance costs. For example, someone in their forties who smokes heavily might expect to pay more than a non-smoker in their thirties – other things being equal.

What is the life expectancy in the UK?

In the most recent data release from the ONS from 2022 to 2024, the average life expectancy was 79 years for men and 83 years for women.

These figures are an average across the UK. But there is some variation in life expectancy across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

How long will I live?

Life expectancy at birth in the UK stands at 79 years for men and at just under 82.9 years for women. This according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the three-year period from 2018 to 2020.

Life expectancy in the UK is well above the international average. Figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for 2019 show that the global average lifespan from birth is 69.8 years for men and 74.2 years for women

As you get older, however, you can expect to live considerably longer than these averages suggest. The ONS points out that the typical 65-year-old man in the UK will live for 18.5 more years, until well past their 83rd birthday.

Women who reach their 65th birthday can on average expect to live a further 21 years until they turn 86, ONS data indicates.

Life expectancy is one of the most important factors when it comes to how insures work out the price of life insurance. So, the more you can do to increase your lifespan, the greater the chances of lowering your costs.