Which country in North America has the highest life expectancy?

Canada has the highest life expectancy in North America: 82.1 years (2024). Next come Costa Rica (81.0 years) and Panama (79.8 years).

What is the typical life expectancy of a country in North America?

The median of the 23 countries in North America is 73.9 years: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.

Where do the figures come from?

Life expectancy at birth: the years a newborn would live if the death rates of the year stayed the same all its life. Source: World Bank, 2024. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Countries in North America by life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth: the years a newborn would live if the death rates of the year stayed the same all its life. 23 countries in North America, highest first. World Bank, 2024

See it on the map

Map: Life expectancy — North America — 666973767882No data

Highest

82.1

Canada

Median country

73.9

half above, half below

Lowest

65.1

Haiti

Countries in North America by life expectancy, World Bank, 2024
#	Country	Years	Region
1	Canada	82.1	Northern America
2	Costa Rica	81.0	Central America
3	Panama	79.8	Central America
4	United States	78.9	Northern America
5	Cuba	78.3	Caribbean
6	Antigua and Barbuda	77.8	Caribbean
7	Barbados	76.3	Caribbean
8	Grenada	75.4	Caribbean
9	Mexico	75.3	Central America
10	Nicaragua	75.1	Central America
11	Bahamas	74.7	Caribbean
12	Dominican Republic	73.9	Caribbean
13	Belize	73.7	Central America
14	Trinidad and Tobago	73.6	Caribbean
15	Honduras	73.0	Central America
16	Saint Lucia	72.8	Caribbean
17	Guatemala	72.7	Central America
=18	El Salvador	72.3	Central America
=18	Saint Kitts and Nevis	72.3	Caribbean
20	Jamaica	71.6	Caribbean
21	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	71.4	Caribbean
22	Dominica	71.3	Caribbean
23	Haiti	65.1	Caribbean

Territories and other places

Not ranked: dependencies of the states above, places whose status is disputed. Highest first.

Place	Years	Status
Bermuda	82.5	Territory of United Kingdom
Puerto Rico	81.9	Territory of United States of America
US Virgin Islands	80.8	Territory of United States of America
Cayman Islands	80.5	Territory of United Kingdom
Saint Martin	80.4	Territory of France
Turks and Caicos Islands	78.2	Territory of United Kingdom
British Virgin Islands	77.4	Territory of United Kingdom
Curaçao	77.0	Territory of Netherlands
Aruba	76.5	Territory of Netherlands
Sint Maarten	76.5	Territory of Netherlands
Greenland	70.3	Territory of Denmark

Questions

Which country in North America has the highest life expectancy?: Canada has the highest life expectancy in North America: 82.1 years (2024). Next come Costa Rica (81.0 years) and Panama (79.8 years).
Which country in North America has the lowest life expectancy?: Haiti, with 65.1 years (2024).
What is the typical life expectancy of a country in North America?: The median of the 23 countries in North America is 73.9 years: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.
Where do the figures come from?: Life expectancy at birth: the years a newborn would live if the death rates of the year stayed the same all its life. Source: World Bank, 2024. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures older than five years are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.