Life Expectancy Calculator for Your Longevity Insights

To start, first, input the current age, or date of birth, and select the biological sex, smoker or non-smoker, and the frequency of alcohol consumption. Regular drinking is defined as taking more than 2 drinks in a day for adult men and more than 1 drink for adult women.

To find out how smokers' lifespan may be reduced, check this study Heavy smokers cut their lifespan by 13 years on average.

Consider your regular diet. What you eat day to day is one of the strongest, and most changeable, predictors of how long you may live. A modeling study using global dietary data found that shifting from a typical Western diet toward an optimized plant-based pattern rich in legumes, whole grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruit could add roughly a decade of life expectancy for a young adult who makes the change early, with smaller but still meaningful gains at older ages. Even partial shifts, like cutting back on meat, are tied to lower rates of heart disease, stroke, and several cancers. Read more about how a plant-based diet could add years to your life.

The Mediterranean diet, built around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, olive oil, fish, and poultry, shows similar benefits. In a Harvard-affiliated study that followed more than 25,000 women for up to 25 years, those who closely followed a Mediterranean pattern had up to 23% lower risk of dying from any cause, with reduced risk for both cardiovascular disease and cancer. Learn more in Women who follow Mediterranean diet live longer, from the Harvard Gazette. A separate comparison of vegan and Mediterranean-style eating found both diets lower cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, with one 2023 study linking the Mediterranean diet to a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 28% lower risk of cancer death; see Vegan or Mediterranean: Which is better for your heart? from UCI Health.

On the other end, regularly eating more unprocessed red meat (beef, pork, lamb, hamburger) or processed red meat (bacon, hot dogs, sausage, salami, bologna) is linked to a higher mortality risk. A decades-long Harvard study of over 120,000 nurses and health professionals found that each additional daily serving of unprocessed red meat raised the risk of death by 13%, rising to 20% for processed meat, while substituting that serving with fish, poultry, legumes, or nuts lowered the risk instead. Learn more in Cutting red meat for a longer life from Harvard Health.

Select your exercise habit. Regular physical activity is associated with a lower risk of premature death and may contribute to a longer lifespan. Research suggests that adults who consistently engage in moderate or vigorous leisure-time exercise experience significant reductions in all-cause mortality compared with those who are less active. The greatest benefits were observed among individuals who accumulated approximately 3-5 hours of vigorous physical activity per week, 5-10 hours of moderate physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of the two.

Importantly, the benefits of physical activity were observed across the adult population studied and were not limited to younger individuals. Meeting or exceeding the recommended levels of exercise was associated with lower mortality risk regardless of age group, highlighting that it is never too late to gain meaningful health benefits from regular physical activity. Learn more in this study, published in the journal Circulation.

Know your gait speed. Research suggests that gait speed (how fast a person normally walks) is a powerful indicator of overall health and longevity. In a study of more than 34,000 adults aged 65 and older, researchers found that people who walked faster generally lived longer than those who walked more slowly. Gait speed was a strong predictor of survival, with faster walkers often having a higher life expectancy than others of the same age and sex.

Walking requires the coordinated function of many body systems, including the heart, lungs, muscles, nervous system, and balance. As a result, gait speed can provide a simple snapshot of overall physical health and biological aging. While a faster walking pace does not necessarily cause a longer life, it is often a sign that the body is functioning well, whereas a slower pace may reflect underlying health challenges or reduced physical fitness. Learn more in the study Gait Speed and Survival in Older Adults, published in the journal JAMA.

Input the blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is considered a healthy level if the "top number" (systolic) is lower than 120 mmHg and the "bottom number" (diastolic) is lower than 80 mmHg. If the systolic blood pressure is greater than 130 mmHg, or the criteria of Stage 1 hypertension or worse is met, the study shows an increased risk of all-cause mortality.

To learn more about how high blood pressure may lower your life expectancy, check this report, High Blood Pressure: Prognosis and Life Expectancy, and this academic study about the association of hypertension and healthy longevity, available at NIH - National Library of Medicine.

Having type 2 diabetes or not. If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, input the age of being diagnosed. Estimates suggest that people with diabetes die, on average, 6 years earlier than people without diabetes. The younger the age at diagnosis, the more age lost could be. Women also lose more age than men do in general. For example, a woman with diabetes diagnosed in her 30s may lose 11 years of life expectancy when she is 40 years old. You can find more in the observational study of life expectancy associated with different ages at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes from NIH - National Library of Medicine.

Cancer diagnosis. Indicate whether you have been diagnosed with cancer within the past five years. If so, select the type of cancer unless your doctor has declared you NED (No Evidence of Disease), in remission, or cancer-free. Different cancers vary in aggressiveness and treatment outcomes, which can significantly affect life expectancy. This calculator uses the latest US 5-year cancer survivior rate by cancer type and adjusts mortality estimates for years six through ten based on ten-year survival data from the US National Cancer Institute.

Check the life expectancy and probability of living longer. The table of longevity estimates can answer the following:

1. Total life expectancy, or expected lifespan. This is the estimated age at which a person may die.

2. Additional life expectancy. This is the average remaining years of a person's life at a given age.

3. Probability of living another N years. This can help answer how likely you will live that long and see if you need to financially and mentally prepare for those years. For instance, if I am a 65-year-old and want to retire, should I prepare to keep sufficient savings for another 30 years, or is 20 years good enough because living 30 years is unlikely? Checking this probability can show you how probable you will live longer, and as a result, you need to save more now or spend less during those years.

4. Probability of reaching a certain age. For example, this answers the likelihood of becoming a centenarian, living to 100 years old.

Check the probability of dying. The table of death probability estimates can also help you make informed decisions in financial, insurance, and estate planning, similar to longevity probability. You can also learn how critical your lifestyle or health condition may affect the likelihood of death:

1. Probability of dying before age X. This refers to the likelihood that an individual will die before reaching a specific age, given their current age and health conditions. It is calculated as (1 - probability of living to X years old).

2. Probability of dying at the age X. This refers to the likelihood that an individual will die at a particular age. Namely, the person will live to the age of X, but will not be able to reach the age of (X+1).