life expectancy

noun

: the average lifespan of an individual

Examples of life expectancy in a Sentence

improvements in diet that have resulted in greater life expectancy for many people

calculating the life expectancies of different social groups

Recent Examples on the Web

The combination of longer life expectancies, rising healthcare costs, persistent inflation, and economic uncertainty is creating a retirement landscape where running out of money is an increasingly real possibility. —Miami Herald, 26 Feb. 2026

Over the past 150 years, human life expectancy around the world has more than doubled, to numbers that Ponce de León could hardly have dreamed of. —Jordan D. Metzl, The Atlantic, 19 Feb. 2026

Fink, 73, has long warned about America’s retirement crisis, with one of his other main arguments being the security system will fail because life expectancy is rising. —Sydney Lake, Fortune, 17 Feb. 2026

Yet this success has long been greeted with the tsking of fiscal conservatives, who have argued that an increase in life expectancy should be accompanied by an increase in the retirement age. —Kathryn Anne Edwards, Twin Cities, 17 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

life expectancy

noun

: the number of years that an individual or group of a certain age can expect to live on the average based on experience in the past for individuals or groups of the same kind

Medical Definition

life expectancy

noun

: an expected number of years of life based on statistical probability

Legal Definition

life expectancy

noun

: the average life span of an individual