Life expectancy calculator for New Zealand
This calculator shows how many more years the average New Zealander of your age and sex can expect to live, using Statistics New Zealand’s national period life tables for 2022–2024. It asks for your age and sex and nothing about your health. The figure is an average across everyone of your age and sex, not a forecast for you.
Your age and sex
Nothing you enter leaves this page. The calculation runs in your browser and is not stored, sent or tracked.
Stats NZ publishes its life tables for males and females separately, so the calculator needs one or the other.
Your age in whole years, from 18 to 100.
Choose male or female and enter your age to see the figures. Nothing is shown until both are in, and the tool never fills in a value for you.
How to use this calculator
- Choose male or female. Stats NZ publishes a separate table for each.
- Enter your age in whole years, from 18 to 100.
- Read the average years left, then the ages by which half, three in four and nine in ten of people your age would have died, and the chance of reaching 80, 85, 90, 95 and 100.
The spread matters more than the average. The average is one number in the middle of a wide range of outcomes, and decisions about how long to keep cover or how long savings must last need the upper end of that range, not the middle.
How the figures are calculated
The calculator reads two columns from Statistics New Zealand’s National and subnational period life tables: 2022–2024, released 30 July 2025, for New Zealand as a whole (the 50% estimate in the file).
- Expectation of life (ex). The average number of years still to live for a person who has reached exact age x. The headline number for your age and sex is this value, shown to one decimal place.
- Survivors (lx). Of 100,000 babies, the number still alive at exact age x. The chance of reaching an older age from yours is lx at the older age divided by lx at your age. The ages by which half, three in four and nine in ten have died are the first whole ages at which that share has fallen to a half, a quarter and a tenth.
Nothing is modelled, smoothed or adjusted by QuoteHub. The tables are in whole years, so ages and chances are to the nearest year and the nearest per cent.
What a period life table does and does not mean
A period life table is a snapshot. It takes the death rates recorded at each age in one window of time, here 2022–2024, and asks how long a person would live if they met those rates at every age as they grew older. No real person lives that way: someone aged 40 today will be 66 in the 2050s, and the table applies the death rates of 2022–2024 to that age. It is the figure behind most headlines, such as 80.1 years for males and 83.5 years for females at birth.
Stats NZ also publishes cohort life tables, which follow people born in the same years and include projected improvement in death rates; Stats NZ says these “give the most authoritative measure of life expectancy”. The gap is real. This tool gives 19.4 more years for a 65-year-old man; the cohort tables give about 21 for men born in the early 1960s, who are turning 65 about now. For a woman of 65 the figures are 21.6 on the period measure and about 24 on the cohort measure. Our life expectancy statistics page
So treat this calculator’s answer as a cautious starting point. If death rates keep falling, people your age are likely to live longer than a period table shows, because it allows for none of that improvement.
What the New Zealand numbers look like
Average years still to live, and the average age that implies, at selected ages. Stats NZ period life tables 2022–2024, New Zealand total, to one decimal place.
| Age now | Male: years left | Male: average age reached | Female: years left | Female: average age reached |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 60.8 | 80.8 | 64.0 | 84.0 |
| 30 | 51.2 | 81.2 | 54.2 | 84.2 |
| 40 | 41.6 | 81.7 | 44.5 | 84.5 |
| 50 | 32.3 | 82.3 | 35.0 | 85.0 |
| 60 | 23.6 | 83.5 | 25.9 | 85.9 |
| 65 | 19.4 | 84.4 | 21.6 | 86.5 |
| 70 | 15.5 | 85.5 | 17.4 | 87.4 |
| 75 | 11.9 | 86.9 | 13.4 | 88.4 |
| 80 | 8.6 | 88.6 | 9.9 | 89.9 |
| 85 | 5.9 | 90.9 | 6.8 | 91.8 |
| 90 | 3.9 | 93.9 | 4.5 | 94.5 |
Source: Statistics New Zealand, National and subnational period life tables: 2022–2024, released 30 July 2025, retrieved 20 October 2026.
Notice that the average age reached rises with the age you have already reached. A newborn boy is expected to live 80.1 years; a man who has reached 75 is expected to reach nearly 87, because he has already got past the years in which people die young.
What this calculator leaves out
Age and sex are the only inputs, by design. That keeps the tool private and keeps it to what the official table supports, but it leaves out most of what separates one person from another.
- Your own health and habits. Smoking, weight, blood pressure, family history and existing conditions all matter and none is asked.
- Where you live and how. Stats NZ’s period tables vary by region and by deprivation: life expectancy at birth was highest in the Tasman region, at 82.8 years for males and 85.7 for females, and highest in the least deprived areas. The national figure hides this.
- Ethnicity. Stats NZ publishes tables by ethnic group, and the 2022–2024 release reports different trends for Māori, Pacific and Asian New Zealanders. This tool uses the national total only.
- Insured lives. Stats NZ does not publish life expectancy for people who hold life insurance, and no New Zealand insurer publishes the experience of its own book, so how insured lives differ from the population is not public.
Why life expectancy matters when you plan cover
Many policies run to a fixed age, and a policy can end before the need does. A level term policy bought to age 80 can sound long enough for a man of 65, whose average age reached is 84.4 on the period measure. But on the same table, half of the men who reach 65 have died by 86 and three in four by 91, so the policy would end about six years before the point where half have died. Our guide to whether life insurance expires term life insurance guide life insurance calculator
This is general information, not advice about what to buy. How long cover should last depends on what it is for: a mortgage with a known end date, dependants who will be independent by a known age, or a funeral cost that arrives whenever the death does.
For the last of those, two Momentum Life products sit at the guaranteed-acceptance end of the market. Momentum Life’s Funeral Insurance accepts New Zealanders aged 40 to 75, pays a fixed benefit of $3,000 to $30,000 towards costs, and keeps premiums level until the 89th birthday, after which cover continues for life. In the first 24 months it pays only for accidental death, and otherwise refunds the premiums paid. Total premiums can end up larger than the benefit, and the benefit may not cover the whole funeral. Quick Life, for ages 18 to 65, excludes pre-existing conditions and suicide in the first 2 years. See the funeral insurance hub, the guaranteed acceptance hub
Frequently asked questions
How long will I live?
Nobody can say. The calculator gives the average for everyone in New Zealand of your age and sex on recent death rates. Your own outcome could be much shorter or much longer, and the table cannot tell which.
Why does a 65-year-old have a higher expected age than a newborn?
Life expectancy at birth includes everyone who dies young. Once you have reached 65 you are no longer part of that group, so the average age reached for people alive at 65 is higher than the figure at birth.
Why do the cohort tables show longer lives?
Cohort tables follow people born in the same years and include projected falls in death rates. A period table holds today’s rates constant, so it allows for none of that improvement.
Does this tell me how much cover I need?
No. It speaks to how long, not how much. Use the life insurance calculator for the amount, and a licensed adviser for the structure.
Is my information kept?
No. The tool asks for age and sex only, the calculation runs in your browser, and nothing is stored, sent or tracked.
Sources
- Statistics New Zealand: National and subnational period life tables: 2022–2024 (released 30 July 2025; data file retrieved 20 October 2026).
- Statistics New Zealand: New Zealand cohort life tables: March 2026 update (released 27 March 2026).
- Momentum Life: financial strength (retrieved 20 October 2026).
Disclosure
Not sure how long your cover needs to last? A licensed adviser can talk it through at no cost. Book a free cover review, or try the other QuoteHub calculators.
Momentum Life’s A.M. Best financial strength rating is B (Fair), in A.M. Best’s “vulnerable” range (Momentum Life: financial strength). QuoteHub may earn a commission on cover taken out through the buttons on this page.
This page is general information, not personalised financial advice. Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). Last reviewed 20 October 2026.
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