Richer countries live longer, with diminishing returns

How closely does a country's income track how long its people live? Each row is one economy in one year, 2000 to 2023, joined to its region, its GDP per person, and its life expectancy at birth.

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Where the world's people live

One dot per economy at its capital, sized by population and colored by region. The map shows every year at once; select a year in the next chart to narrow it.

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Income and lifespan rise together

Each dot is one economy in 2023, placed by GDP per person on a log scale and life expectancy. In 2023, log GDP per person and life expectancy had correlation 0.861, and the band of dots is straight only because the income axis is logarithmic: each step up in income adds fewer years than the last. Singapore, the richest at $130,297 per person, does not live longest; San Marino does, at 85.7 years among the economies with a GDP figure.

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Lifespans rose almost everywhere

Each box holds a region's economies across all 24 years. The mean economy's life expectancy was 67.6 years in 2000. By 2023, it was 73.8 years. The gain was largest where lifespans were shortest: Sub-Saharan Africa's mean economy went from 53.5 years in 2000 to 64.6 in 2023, while North America's went from 78.0 to 80.8.

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Takeaway

Income and lifespan are tightly linked across countries, but the payoff to income shrinks as countries get richer. Most of the six-year gain since 2000 came in lower-income regions.

Limits

Each economy counts once, whatever its size, so these averages are not the average person's lifespan. Twenty economies have no 2023 GDP figure and drop out of that year's points.