Life Clock

Where the numbers come from

The clock starts from the life expectancy at birth that the World Health Organization (WHO) publishes for each country and sex in its Global Health Observatory. It is the average age a group of people born today would reach if current death rates stayed the same for their whole lives. Your age is subtracted from that figure, and what is left is shown in years, days, hours, minutes and seconds, together with the days you have already lived.

The healthy years come from a second figure from the same source, healthy life expectancy (HALE): the years lived on average without an illness or disability that limits daily life. The gap between the two is the time that, statistically, is lived with some limitation.

It is not a prediction about you. It is an average of millions of people and knows nothing about your health, your habits or your family. It is also a cautious estimate: someone who has already turned 60 has somewhat more time ahead than the at-birth figure suggests, because they have already come through the risks of the earlier ages. If you pass your country's average, the counter starts going up and counts the time lived beyond it.

If WHO has no data for your country, the clock uses a fallback figure and says so next to the result.

Frequently asked questions

How many days do I have left to live?

Enter your date of birth, your sex and your country. The clock subtracts your age from WHO life expectancy for your country and shows the result in years and days, along with the days you have already lived. It is a population average, not an assessment of your health.

How many hours or seconds of life do I have left?

The clock counts in real time: the hours, minutes and seconds left until your country's average life expectancy go down while the page is open.

Is it accurate?

The figures are WHO's official ones and are updated when WHO publishes new data. But they describe a population, not a person: they give a sense of time, not a forecast of how long you will live.

Is my date of birth stored?

Only in your browser, on this device, so you do not have to type it again. It is never sent to a server: the only thing that leaves the browser is your country code, to request its figures from WHO. If you press «Share», the link carries only the rounded percentage of life lived.

What is healthy life expectancy?

It is the WHO figure that counts only the years lived in good health, without an illness or disability that limits daily life. It is always lower than total life expectancy.