# Life Expectancy Calculator Average remaining years and the odds of reaching 80, 90 and 100, read from the Social Security 2023 period life table. --- - **Canonical URL:** https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/life-expectancy-calculator - **Category:** Health and fitness - **Publisher:** Do The Calculation (https://dothecalculation.com) - **Cost:** Free, no account or sign-up required - **Privacy:** Runs entirely in the browser; inputs are never sent to a server - **Methodology:** https://dothecalculation.com/methodology --- ## Life expectancy from the Social Security life table See average remaining years, the chance of reaching 80, 90 and 100, and the ages a quarter and a tenth of people your age live to, read straight from the SSA's latest period life table. - SSA 2023 period life table, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report - Survival chances computed from the table's l(x) column - A population average, not a prediction about you ## Quick Answer — How Long Can I Expect to Live? In the Social Security Administration's **2023 period life table** (the table used in the **2026 Trustees Report**), a man aged 65 has an average of **18.12 more years** of life, to an average age of **83.1**. A woman aged 65 has **20.66 more years**, to **85.7**. Averages hide a wide spread. Of men alive at 65, **64.2%** reach 80 and **24.1%** reach 90. For women the figures are **73.9%** and **34.9%**. **This is a population-average statistical estimate, not a personal prediction.** It describes everyone of a given age and sex in the Social Security area population, using the death rates of a single year. It knows nothing about your health, your family history, your income or how you live, and it does not predict when any individual will die. ## How to Use This Calculator: A 65-Year-Old Man Enter an age of **65** and choose the **Male** column. Use your age at your last birthday; the table is organised by exact age. The calculator reads the table row for 65. Average remaining years, e(65), is **18.12**, so the average age at death is **83.12**. The table also shows that **79,084** of every 100,000 males born reach 65, and that the chance of dying before 66 is **1.65%**. To find the chance of reaching 80, the calculator divides the survivors at 80 by the survivors at 65: **50,785 ÷ 79,084 = 64.2%**. The same method gives **24.1%** for reaching 90 and **1.3%** for reaching 100. The last lines show the spread. Half of 65-year-old men live past **83.8** — slightly more than the average of 83.1, because a minority of early deaths pull the average down. One in four reach **89.8**, and one in ten reach **94.2**. Those last two ages matter more than the average for anyone planning money that has to last. ## The Table and Formulas This Calculator Uses **Source:** the Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary publishes an actuarial life table each year with the Social Security Trustees Report. This calculator stores the **2023 period life table for the Social Security area population, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report**, for every age from 0 to 119 and both sexes, exactly as published. Each row has three numbers per sex. **q(x)** is the probability of dying within one year at exact age x. **l(x)** is the number of survivors at exact age x out of 100,000 born alive. **e(x)** is the period life expectancy: the average number of years remaining at exact age x. **Average remaining years** = e(x), read directly. **Average age at death** = x + e(x). **Chance of reaching age T** = l(T) ÷ l(x). This is the share of people alive at your age who are still alive at T, if the 2023 death rates applied for the rest of their lives. **Median, 1-in-4 and 1-in-10 ages:** the age at which l falls to 50%, 25% or 10% of l(x), interpolated linearly between the two whole years on either side. **No lifestyle adjustments are made.** Calculators that add or subtract years for smoking, exercise or diet usually combine results from different studies in ways those studies were never designed to support. This one reports the table and nothing else. ## A Second Example: A 40-Year-Old Woman, and Why Averages Move Enter **40** and choose **Female**. Average remaining years, e(40), is **42.64**, for an average age at death of **82.64**. That is **three years lower** than the 85.66 average for a woman of 65. This is not an error. A 65-year-old has already survived the deaths that happen between 40 and 65, so the group she belongs to lives longer on average. Life expectancy at any age includes only the people who reached that age. The spread for the 40-year-old is wide: **66.4%** reach 80, **31.3%** reach 90, half live past **85.2**, one in four reach **91.6**, and one in ten reach **96.1**. The same effect is strongest at birth. For a baby boy, the average is **75.79** years, but half of boys live past **80.3**. Deaths in infancy, childhood and young adulthood pull the average below what most people will actually experience. ## Planning to a Longevity Age, Not the Average For retirement, the average age at death is the wrong planning horizon. By definition, a large share of people live past it, and running out of money at 88 is a far worse outcome than dying with some left over. That is why financial planners often plan to an age with a low chance of being outlived. Take a 65-year-old woman. Her average age at death is **85.7**, but one in four women her age reach **92.2** and one in ten reach **96.5**. A plan built to 86 has roughly even odds of being too short. Built to 92, it covers three out of four; built to 96, nine out of ten. Couples face an even longer horizon. For a man and a woman who are both 65, the chance that **at least one** of them reaches 90 is **50.6%**, and the chance that at least one reaches 95 is **21.3%**, if their survival is treated as independent. In reality couples share circumstances, so treat those as rough figures. Carry that horizon into the [retirement calculator](/calculators/retirement-calculator) as the number of years your savings must last. For early retirement the gap is larger still: a 45-year-old woman has a one-in-four chance of reaching **91.6**, so a plan to retire at 45 may need to fund more than 45 years, which is the kind of horizon the [FIRE calculator](/calculators/fire-calculator) is built to test. ## Period Life Expectancy and Why Your Own Odds Differ A **period** life table freezes the death rates of one year, here 2023, and asks how long people would live if those rates never changed. In reality death rates have generally fallen over time, so a period figure tends to understate how long today's younger people will live. The SSA also publishes **cohort** life tables that project future improvements; those give higher figures for younger ages and involve assumptions about the future that a period table avoids. Within any age and sex group, circumstances matter a great deal. A study of U.S. tax and death records by Chetty and colleagues (*JAMA*, 2016) found that among 40-year-olds, the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest 1% of the income distribution was about **14.6 years for men** and **10.1 years for women**. Health, smoking, education and access to care all separate individuals from the table average in the same way. That is why this calculator describes a population and does not attempt to describe you. ## Limitations **Not a personal prediction.** Every figure is an average over a large population. It cannot account for your health, family history, income, behaviour or medical care. **One year's death rates.** The 2023 period table assumes 2023 mortality applies for the rest of a person's life. Future improvements in medicine, or future setbacks, are not included. **Social Security area population.** The table covers the population Social Security uses for its projections, which is broader than U.S. residents alone. It does not describe any other country. **Whole years only.** The calculator uses your age at your last birthday and reads that row. Someone who is 65 and a half is placed in the 65 row. **Sex categories.** The table is published for males and females only, and it does not describe differences within those groups. ## Related Calculators Beyond financial planning, the parts of longevity you can change mostly run through the heart and metabolism. The [Framingham cardiac risk calculator](/calculators/cardiac-risk-framingham-calculator) estimates your 10-year cardiovascular risk from blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and diabetes, which says far more about your own outlook than a population table can. Your [BMI](/calculators/bmi-calculator) is a quick screening check on body weight. And for the money side, pair the longevity ages above with the [retirement calculator](/calculators/retirement-calculator) to test whether your savings reach the horizon rather than the average. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the average life expectancy in the United States? In the SSA's 2023 period life table, life expectancy at birth is 75.79 years for males and 81.06 years for females. At 65, it is a further 18.12 years for men and 20.66 years for women. ### Can this calculator predict when I will die? No. It reports the average for everyone of your age and sex in the Social Security area population, using 2023 death rates. It is a population statistic, and individuals differ from it by decades in both directions. ### Why does my life expectancy go up as I get older? Because each year you survive removes the risk of dying in that year. A 40-year-old woman's average age at death is 82.6, but a 65-year-old woman's is 85.7, because she has already survived the years between. ### What are my chances of living to 90? From the 2023 table, 24.1% of men and 34.9% of women alive at 65 reach 90. At 80, the chances are 37.5% for men and 47.2% for women. Enter your age to see your row. ### What age should I plan my retirement savings to last until? An age you have a low chance of outliving, rather than the average. For a 65-year-old woman the average age at death is 85.7, but one in four reach 92.2 and one in ten reach 96.5. Many planners use the one-in-four or one-in-ten age as a horizon. ### Why doesn't this calculator ask about smoking, exercise or diet? Because adding or subtracting years for individual habits requires combining studies in ways they were not designed for, and the result looks more precise than it is. This calculator reports the SSA table exactly and leaves personal risk to tools such as a cardiovascular risk calculator and to a doctor. ### What is the difference between period and cohort life expectancy? Period life expectancy uses one year's death rates as though they never change. Cohort life expectancy projects how death rates will change over a person's life. Because death rates have generally fallen over time, cohort figures are usually higher for younger people. ### Why is the median age at death higher than the average? Deaths at young ages pull the average down. For baby boys in the 2023 table the average is 75.8 years, but half live past 80.3. For a 65-year-old man the average age at death is 83.1 and the median is 83.8. ## Related concepts - **Period Life Table** — A table built from the death rates of a single year, applied as though they never change. The SSA publishes one each year with the Trustees Report. - **l(x) Survivors Column** — The number of people alive at exact age x out of 100,000 born. Dividing one age's l(x) by another's gives the chance of surviving between them. - **Longevity Planning Horizon** — An age with a low chance of being outlived, such as the age one in four people reach, used instead of average life expectancy for retirement plans. ## Related guides - [Retirement Planning by Age: Key Milestones From 50 to 75](https://dothecalculation.com/blog/finance/retirement-savings-timeline) — The U.S. retirement ages that change what you can do, from catch-up contributions at 50 and penalty-free withdrawals at 59½ to Medicare at 65 and required distributions at 73 or 75. - [How to Use Do The Calculation Calculators: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide](https://dothecalculation.com/blog/site-guides/how-to-use-calculators) — Learn the fastest reliable workflow for using Do The Calculation calculators, reading results, checking formulas, and using save, print, share, and export actions correctly. ## Related calculators - [FIRE Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/fire-calculator) — Estimate your financial independence number and early retirement timeline based on savings rate and expected investment returns. - [Monte Carlo Retirement Simulator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/monte-carlo-portfolio-retirement-calculator) — Simulate thousands of retirement wealth paths, check portfolio success rates, and analyze percentile outcome ranges over time. - [Retirement Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/retirement-calculator) — Plan your retirement savings by estimating income targets, contribution needs, and growth so you can retire with confidence. - [Menstrual Cycle / Period Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/menstrual-cycle-calculator) — Predict your next period, estimated ovulation day, and fertile window from your last period start date and average cycle length. - [Average Blood Sugar (A1C) Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/a1c-average-blood-sugar-calculator) — Convert an A1C percentage into estimated average glucose (eAG) in mg/dL and mmol/L using the ADA formula. - [Basal Body Temperature Fertility Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/basal-body-temperature-calculator) — Check today's waking temperature against your follicular baseline for a post-ovulation thermal shift, and estimate your next period. --- _This calculator reports population averages from the Social Security Administration's 2023 period life table for the Social Security area population, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report, published by the SSA Office of the Chief Actuary. It is a statistical estimate for a large population, not a prediction about any individual, and it makes no adjustment for health, family history, income or lifestyle. Period life expectancy assumes one year's death rates continue unchanged. It is not medical, actuarial or financial advice._ --- _Source: [Do The Calculation](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/life-expectancy-calculator). Quote freely with attribution and a link to this page._