Life Expectancy

What is Life Expectancy?

Life expectancy is an estimate of how long an individual is likely to live based on specific factors, like their current age, gender, and lifestyle choices. In life insurance, life expectancy is the major determinant of the cost of coverage.

How insurers use life expectancy

Life insurance companies specialize in risk calculation — and mitigation. A big way they do this is by factoring in an individual’s life expectancy before issuing them a life insurance policy.

When you apply for life insurance on yourself, the insurance provider gathers data about you. You might need to go in for a medical exam and fill out a questionnaire about things like your occupation, your exercise habits, and whether or not you smoke, for example.

The insurer then uses all of this data, alongside sophisticated algorithms and mortality tables, to estimate your life expectancy.

The longer they expect you to live, the less you’ll need to pay for life insurance. The thinking goes that when you live longer, you’ll have more time to pay your life insurance premiums. That allows the insurer to recoup money before they have to pay out your death benefit when you pass away.

Life expectancy to determine premiums

In order for life insurance companies to stay profitable and continue coverage for their insureds, they need to bring in more money than they pay out in a specific period. Estimating life expectancy helps them do just that.

If they expect an individual to live for a while after they purchase coverage, they’ll put that person in a better rate class. A more preferential rating means that person will pay less for life insurance. That’s why younger people usually get cheaper life insurance.

If the insurer determines that the life expectancy for that individual isn’t very long, they will charge more for the life insurance premiums — or they may deny that individual coverage altogether.

Gender and life expectancy

While calculating your life expectancy is generally a nuanced process, there’s one area in which it’s pretty simple. Because women tend to live longer than men, life insurers bump up their life expectancy. And that means that women will usually pay less than men for life insurance, assuming all other factors (like health status, age, and lifestyle choices) are the same. The exception is the state of Montana, where all life insurance rates are unisex.

Life expectancy table

There are many varying factors that affect life expectancy as seen above but in general terms, these are the numbers for the US (data from the Office of the Chief Actuary):

Probability of dying within one year.
The period life expectancy at a given age for 2019 is the average remaining number of years expected prior to death for a person at that exact age, born on January 1, using the mortality rates for 2019 over the course of his or her remaining life.

Exact age	Male	Female
	Death probability	Life expectancy	Death probability	Life expectancy
0	0.006081	76.23	0.005046	81.28
1	0.000425	75.69	0.000349	80.69
2	0.00026	74.73	0.000212	79.72
3	0.000194	73.75	0.000166	78.74
4	0.000154	72.76	0.000137	77.75
5	0.000142	71.77	0.000122	76.76
6	0.000135	70.78	0.000111	75.77
7	0.000127	69.79	0.000103	74.78
8	0.000117	68.8	0.000098	73.79
9	0.000104	67.81	0.000095	72.79
10	0.000097	66.81	0.000096	71.8
11	0.000106	65.82	0.000102	70.81
12	0.000145	64.83	0.000116	69.81
13	0.00022	63.84	0.000139	68.82
14	0.000324	62.85	0.00017	67.83
15	0.000437	61.87	0.000204	66.84
16	0.000552	60.9	0.00024	65.86
17	0.000676	59.93	0.000278	64.87
18	0.000806	58.97	0.000319	63.89
19	0.000939	58.02	0.00036	62.91
20	0.001079	57.07	0.000405	61.93
21	0.001215	56.13	0.000451	60.96
22	0.001327	55.2	0.000491	59.99
23	0.001406	54.27	0.000523	59.02
24	0.001461	53.35	0.00055	58.05
25	0.001508	52.43	0.000575	57.08
26	0.001559	51.51	0.000605	56.11
27	0.001612	50.58	0.000642	55.14
28	0.001671	49.67	0.000691	54.18
29	0.001734	48.75	0.000749	53.22
30	0.001798	47.83	0.000811	52.26
31	0.00186	46.92	0.000872	51.3
32	0.001926	46	0.000933	50.34
33	0.001994	45.09	0.00099	49.39
34	0.002067	44.18	0.001046	48.44
35	0.002147	43.27	0.001107	47.49
36	0.002233	42.36	0.001172	46.54
37	0.002318	41.46	0.001236	45.59
38	0.002399	40.55	0.001296	44.65
39	0.002483	39.65	0.001356	43.71
40	0.002581	38.75	0.001423	42.76
41	0.002697	37.84	0.001502	41.83
42	0.002828	36.95	0.001596	40.89
43	0.002976	36.05	0.001709	39.95
44	0.003145	35.16	0.00184	39.02
45	0.003339	34.26	0.001988	38.09
46	0.003566	33.38	0.002152	37.17
47	0.003831	32.5	0.002332	36.24
48	0.004142	31.62	0.002528	35.33
49	0.004498	30.75	0.002744	34.42
50	0.004888	29.88	0.00298	33.51
51	0.005319	29.03	0.00324	32.61
52	0.005808	28.18	0.003529	31.71
53	0.00636	27.34	0.003852	30.82
54	0.00697	26.51	0.004207	29.94
55	0.007627	25.7	0.00459	29.06
56	0.00832	24.89	0.004996	28.2
57	0.009047	24.1	0.005425	27.34
58	0.009803	23.31	0.005874	26.48
59	0.010591	22.54	0.006346	25.64
60	0.011447	21.77	0.00688	24.8
61	0.012352	21.02	0.007454	23.96
62	0.013248	20.28	0.008006	23.14
63	0.014117	19.54	0.008515	22.32
64	0.014995	18.81	0.009025	21.51
65	0.015987	18.09	0.00961	20.7
66	0.017107	17.38	0.01032	19.9
67	0.01828	16.67	0.011158	19.1
68	0.0195	15.97	0.012148	18.31
69	0.020829	15.28	0.013301	17.53
70	0.022364	14.6	0.014662	16.76
71	0.024169	13.92	0.01621	16
72	0.026249	13.25	0.017892	15.26
73	0.028642	12.59	0.019701	14.52
74	0.03138	11.95	0.0217	13.81
75	0.034593	11.32	0.024064	13.1
76	0.038235	10.71	0.026814	12.41
77	0.042159	10.12	0.029837	11.74
78	0.046336	9.54	0.033132	11.09
79	0.050917	8.98	0.03681	10.45
80	0.056205	8.43	0.041102	9.83
81	0.062327	7.91	0.04608	9.23
82	0.06919	7.4	0.051658	8.65
83	0.076844	6.91	0.057868	8.09
84	0.085407	6.44	0.064829	7.56
85	0.09501	6	0.07269	7.05
86	0.10577	5.58	0.081578	6.56
87	0.117771	5.18	0.091587	6.1
88	0.131063	4.8	0.102774	5.67
89	0.145666	4.45	0.11516	5.26
90	0.161582	4.12	0.128749	4.88
91	0.178797	3.82	0.143532	4.53
92	0.197287	3.54	0.159491	4.2
93	0.217013	3.29	0.1766	3.9
94	0.23793	3.06	0.194825	3.63
95	0.258655	2.87	0.213248	3.39
96	0.278786	2.69	0.23157	3.18
97	0.297897	2.54	0.249466	2.98
98	0.315556	2.4	0.266589	2.81
99	0.331333	2.28	0.282585	2.65
100	0.3479	2.16	0.29954	2.49
101	0.365295	2.05	0.317512	2.35
102	0.38356	1.94	0.336563	2.21
103	0.402738	1.83	0.356756	2.07
104	0.422875	1.73	0.378162	1.94
105	0.444018	1.64	0.400852	1.82
106	0.466219	1.54	0.424903	1.7
107	0.48953	1.45	0.450397	1.59
108	0.514007	1.37	0.477421	1.48
109	0.539707	1.29	0.506066	1.38
110	0.566692	1.21	0.53643	1.28
111	0.595027	1.13	0.568616	1.19
112	0.624778	1.06	0.602733	1.1
113	0.656017	0.99	0.638896	1.02
114	0.688818	0.92	0.67723	0.94
115	0.723259	0.86	0.717864	0.87
116	0.759422	0.8	0.759422	0.8
117	0.797393	0.74	0.797393	0.74
118	0.837263	0.68	0.837263	0.68
119	0.879126	0.63	0.879126	0.63

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