Do My NumbersRetirement income

Life expectancy calculator

On average, to about age8318.1 more years

64% chance you reach 80.

Chance of being aliveExample numbers

Line chart of the chance of being alive at each age from 65, falling to zero. Your own chance falls to 50% at about age 84. Life expectancy is marked at age 83. Use the arrow keys to read values by age.

Tap the chart to read any agePoint at the chart to read any age

Source: US SSA 2023 period life table; Do My Numbers calculations.
Your life expectancy
Age 8318.1 more years
Half live past
Age 84the median age at death
1 in 4 live past
Age 90
Chance you reach 80
64%about 6 in 10
Chance you reach 90
24%about 2 in 10
Chance you reach 100
1.3%about 1 in 79

Life expectancy is an average. Under this table about half of men aged 65 live past 84, and about 1 in 4 past 90.

Show the working for your numbers

  1. Your complete life expectancy (remaining years)

    e˚x=∑k≥0kpx(1−12 qx+k)\mathring{e}_{x} = \sum_{k \ge 0} {}_{k}p_{x} \left(1 - \tfrac{1}{2}\,q_{x+k}\right)

    Complete life expectancy e̊ₓThe average number of years still to live for someone aged x, counting part years. The ring marks the complete version. equals 18.12

  2. Your expected age at death, on average

    expected age=x+e˚x\text{expected age} = x + \mathring{e}_{x}
    • Age xYour age today, in whole years.How it works: Life tables Age 65
    • Complete life expectancy e̊ₓThe average number of years still to live for someone aged x, counting part years. The ring marks the complete version. Remaining years 18.12

    Expected age at deathAge today plus the complete life expectancy: the average age at death for people like you under the table. equals 83.12

  3. You: chance of dying within the year at age 65

    qx=table value at age xq_{x} = \text{table value at age } x

    Death probability qₓThe chance that someone aged exactly x dies before reaching x + 1, read from the life table.How it works: Life tables equals 0.01646

    How it works: Life tables

  4. You: chance of surviving 15 whole years

    kpx=∏j=0k−1(1−qx+j){}_{k}p_{x} = \prod_{j=0}^{k-1} \left(1 - q_{x+j}\right)

    Survival probability ₖpₓThe chance that someone aged x is still alive k whole years from now. It multiplies (1 − q) for each year in turn.How it works: Survival probability equals 0.6422

    How it works: Survival probability

  5. You: chance of reaching 80 (15 years from now)

    tpx=kpx (1−s qx+k),t=k+s{}_{t}p_{x} = {}_{k}p_{x}\,\left(1 - s\,q_{x+k}\right),\quad t = k + s
    • Survival probability ₖpₓThe chance that someone aged x is still alive k whole years from now. It multiplies (1 − q) for each year in turn.How it works: Survival probability Survive whole years 0.6422
    • Fraction of a year sThe part of the next year, between 0 and 1, after the last whole year: t = k + s.How it works: Survival probability Fraction of the next year 0
    • Death probability in year kThe one-year death probability at age x + k, the year being part-lived.How it works: Survival probability Death rate in that year 0.05563

    Survival probability ₜpₓThe chance that someone aged x is still alive t years from now.How it works: Survival probability equals 0.6422

    How it works: Survival probability

Updated October 30, 2026 · Free, no sign-up, nothing stored

Educational illustration, not financial advice.

Built and maintained by a former actuary with qualifications in finance and economics.

Methodology: formulas, data and limits

This life expectancy calculator reads the US Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, the same data its actuaries use, and turns it into three answers: how many more years people of your age and sex live on average, how likely you are to reach 80, 90 and 100, and, for a couple, how likely it is that at least one of you gets there. It is one of our retirement income calculators, and like the others it shows its working for your own numbers.

How this life expectancy calculator works

A life table lists, for every age, the chance that someone of that age dies before their next birthday. Actuaries call it Death probability qₓThe chance that someone aged exactly x dies before reaching x + 1, read from the life table.How it works: Life tables, where xx is the age. The SSA table (Period Life Table, 2023, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report) gives it separately for men and women from birth to 119. More on how life tables work.

To survive several years you have to survive each one in turn, so the chance of being alive kk years from now multiplies the yearly survival chances together:

kpx=∏j=0k−1(1−qx+j){}_{k}p_{x} = \prod_{j=0}^{k-1} \left(1 - q_{x+j}\right)

The chance that someone aged xx is alive kk whole years from now. The chance of reaching age 90, for example, is this product with k=90−xk = 90 - x. More on survival probability.

Remaining life expectancy adds up the time lived in each future year. Within a year the calculator assumes deaths are spread evenly, so someone who dies during a year lives half of it on average:

e˚x=∑k≥0kpx(1−12 qx+k)\mathring{e}_{x} = \sum_{k \ge 0} {}_{k}p_{x} \left(1 - \tfrac{1}{2}\,q_{x+k}\right)

Complete life expectancy e̊ₓThe average number of years still to live for someone aged x, counting part years. The ring marks the complete version. is the complete life expectancy: the average number of years still to live, counting part years. Adding it to your age gives the average age at death for people like you. This reproduces the SSA’s published figure at every age, to the two decimal places the SSA prints. More on life expectancy.

For smokers the calculator multiplies each year’s death rate by 2.0, which you can change under Advanced. Population tables mix smokers and non-smokers, so this is a rough adjustment, explained on mortality laws and adjustments. “Show the working for your numbers”, under the results, sets out every step for the inputs you enter.

Worked example

Take a 65-year-old man who does not smoke. The table gives him a 0.01646 chance of dying before 66, so a 0.98355 chance of reaching it. At 66 the death rate is 0.01757, and so on up the table.

Adding up the expected time lived in each future year gives 18.1 more years, an average age at death of about 83. The SSA’s printed figure for a man of 65 is 18.12 years. Multiplying through the yearly survival chances gives:

  • a 64% chance of reaching 80 (about 6 in 10)
  • a 24% chance of reaching 90 (about 2 in 10)
  • a 1.3% chance of reaching 100 (about 1 in 79)

For a woman of the same age the table gives 20.7 more years, to about 86, and a 35% chance of reaching 90. If he smoked, at 2.0 times the death rates, his figures would fall to 13.0 more years, to about 78, and a 5.1% chance of reaching 90.

Life expectancy is an average, and many people outlive it

The headline age is a mean. Deaths are spread over several decades, so it says little about any one person. For the 65-year-old man above, half of men like him live past about 84, which is later than the mean of 83, because a minority who die young pull the average down. About 1 in 4 live past 90.

That spread is why the chance of reaching 90 or 100 matters for retirement planning more than the average does. A plan that runs out of money at the life expectancy age leaves a large share of people still alive with nothing left. The how long will my money last calculator uses the same table to show the chance someone is still alive when savings run out.

Couples: the chance at least one of you reaches 90

Couples often care about the longer-lived of the two. If the man above has a 63-year-old woman as a spouse, she has 22.3 more years on average. Each of them reaches 90 in their own time, and the calculator combines the two chances:

PA=1−(1−A−xpx)(1−A−ypy)P_{A} = 1 - \left(1 - {}_{A-x}p_{x}\right)\left(1 - {}_{A-y}p_{y}\right)

The chance that at least one of two people reaches age AA: one minus the chance that neither does. xx and yy are their ages today. It assumes their lifetimes are independent. More on joint and last-survivor probabilities.

His chance of reaching 90 is 24% and hers is 34%, so the chance that at least one of them does is 50%, about 5 in 10 couples like them. On average the longer-lived of the two has 25.6 more years. The chart switches to three lines for a couple: you, your spouse, and at least one of you, all against your age.

To see these figures for every age at once, the life expectancy by age table lists remaining years and the chance of reaching 80, 90 and 100 for men and women from birth to 119.

What this leaves out

  • Future improvements in mortality. A period table uses one year’s death rates, those of 2023, at every future age. Death rates have tended to fall over time, so people alive today will probably live somewhat longer than it shows. A cohort table, which projects those improvements, would give higher figures; this calculator does not use one.
  • Your health and circumstances. The table averages over the whole Social Security area population, including people who are seriously ill. Health conditions, weight, alcohol, income, education and where you live all change real odds, and none of them are inputs here.
  • Smoking, beyond a rough multiplier. The smoker adjustment scales the population table. It is not a table built from smokers’ own death rates.
  • Linked lifetimes. For couples the calculation treats the two lifetimes as independent. Real couples share homes, habits and incomes, so their lifetimes are somewhat linked.
  • Life expectancy at birth. The table’s figure at birth (75.79 years for boys, 81.06 for girls) is a summary of 2023 death rates, not a forecast for anyone born that year.

Educational illustration, not financial advice. It is not medical advice either: it describes averages under the assumptions above, not how long any one person will live.

Questions

How accurate is a life expectancy calculator?

It is accurate as an average, not as a forecast for one person. The figure is the mean remaining lifetime of everyone your age and sex in the US population table, healthy or not. Your own health, habits and income move your odds, and a period table does not allow for death rates falling in future, so most people today will live a little longer than it shows.

Is this an SSA life expectancy calculator?

It uses the same data as the Social Security Administration's actuaries, the period life table from the Office of the Chief Actuary, but this site is independent of the SSA. Beyond remaining years, it shows the chance of reaching 80, 90 and 100, handles couples, and sets out every step of the calculation.

What is the chance of living to 100?

Enter your age and sex and read the "Chance you reach 100" figure. On the table it rises with age, because someone who is already 85 has come through the risks that someone aged 60 still faces. Women's chances are higher than men's at every age. It is still an average across the whole population.

Why is my life expectancy higher than the average lifespan?

Because you have already lived to your current age. Life expectancy at birth averages over everyone, including people who die young. Once you reach 65, those early deaths are behind you, so the average age you can expect to reach is higher than the figure quoted at birth.

Does smoking change the result?

Yes, if you say you smoke. The calculator multiplies each year's death rate by a smoker multiplier, which you can change under Advanced. That is a rough adjustment to a population table that mixes smokers and non-smokers, not a smoker table, so treat the smoker figures as an illustration.

Sources