Japan

• Male Life Expectancy: 81.91
• Female Life Expectancy: 88.09
• Life Expectancy Age Overall: 85.03
• Population: 126.5 Million

Japanese culture and history are incredibly well-known. From the era of the Samauri to the major Japanese Empire overall, all the way to its hunt for oil that cost them terribly during World War I. While an enemy to the West for quite a long time, today, Japan is on good terms with pretty much everyone. They are a beacon of technological, educational, and medical progress that has helped to literally change the planet.

By 1990, Japan had the second-largest economy on the planet. Today, it ranks third by GDP. Obviously, they have businesses connected to several areas. This includes the automotive industry, as well as industries that make televisions, phones, and of course video games/video game systems. They have the seventh-ranked education system and tenth in healthcare. Japan also provides free universal healthcare to not only citizens but any visiting foreigner and immigrant too. It’s pretty obvious to see how they are among the countries with the best life expectancies.

Hong Kong

• Average Male Age: 82.38
• Average Female Age: 88.17
• The Average Age Overall: 85.29
• Population: 7.5 Million

Hong Kong, to us, still operates as a distinct nation unto itself. In spite of the attempts made by China. A lot of this controversy started when many years ago, Great Britain made Hong Kong a British colony. The Qing Empire gave up Hong Kong Island to the British in the mid-1800s. British Hong Kong was then occupied by Japan in the 1940s, but Japan surrendered it. By 1997, the British gave it up to China who then made it a “special administrative region.” Yet they maintained complete control over their governing and economic systems.

China seemed to be fine with this until the last number of years, where they have tried to cause problems. This is due to the economic impressiveness of the region that has become one of the world’s largest commercial ports and financial centers. They offer free trade and low taxes, making it perfect for business. Hong Kong is currently second in global education rankings and eighth in healthcare rankings. Public healthcare is mostly free in Hong Kong, but some stuff requires a small fee. It’s pretty obvious why Hong Kong takes the top spot among countries with the best life expectancies.

Nations Cut For Population

We had to cut some countries or territories out due to not meeting our 5 million population quota. Among them were some smaller places like the Channel Islands, Macao, Cyprus, Guadeloupe, Réunion, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Malta, Qatar, Guam, Maldives, Martinique, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Yet others that are well-known on a global scale also missed the cut like Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia, Singapore, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. While a few of the above nations were close to this 5 million population barrier, we made the rules and decided to stick with them. However, we should say that Macao, Singapore, Channel Islands, and Iceland were in the top ten countries with the best life expectancies list for most sources.

Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

National Institutes of Health

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Human Development Index

United Nations

Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI)

World Health Organization

WorldOMeters

World Population Review

Statista

Science Direct

Commonwealth Fund

The Guardian

USA Today

Investopedia