Life expectancy in Australia has improved dramatically for both sexes in the last century, particularly life expectancy at birth. Compared with their counterparts in 1881–1890, boys and girls born in 2011–2013 can expect to live around 33 and 34 years longer, respectively.
In Australia, a boy born in 2011–2013 can expect to live to the age of 80.1 years and a girl would be expected to live to 84.3 years compared to 47.2 and 50.8 years, respectively, in 1881–1890.
Life expectancy changes over the course of a person’s life because as they survive the periods of birth, childhood and adolescence, their chance of reaching older age increases. The life expectancy at different ages can be presented as the number of additional years a person can expect to live, or, their expected age at death in years.
Men aged 65 in 2011–2013 could expect to live another 19.2 years (an expected age at death of 84.2 years) and the life expectancy of women aged 65 in 2011–2013 was 22.1 years (an expected age at death of 87.1 years).
Australia enjoys one of the highest life expectancies of any country in the world, at 82.2 years in 2013 for males and females at birth combined—ranked sixth among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The highest life expectancy at birth was 80.7 for males in Switzerland, and 86.6 for females in Japan.
| Country | Males | Country | Females |
|---|---|---|---|
Switzerland  |
80.7 | Japan  |
86.6 |
Iceland  |
80.5 | Spain  |
86.1 |
Israel  |
80.3 | France  |
85.6 |
Italy  |
80.3 | Italy  |
85.2 |
| Japan |
80.2 | Korea  |
85.1 |
| Spain |
80.2 | Switzerland |
85.0 |
Sweden  |
80.2 | Australia  |
84.3 |
| Australia |
80.1 | Finland  |
84.1 |
Luxembourg  |
79.8 | Greece  |
84.0 |
Norway  |
79.8 | Portugal  |
84.0 |
Source: OECD 2015 (Table S2).
