The 2025 figure is a 0.2-year gain from 2024 and pushes Singapore past its own pre-pandemic high of 83.7 years set in 2019, fully erasing the dip that Covid-19 inflicted on lifespans worldwide, SingStat said. Over the past decade residents have added a full year to their expected lifespan, up from 82.9 years in 2015.
That trajectory has all but closed a gap that stood at roughly a full year a decade ago. Japan’s life expectancy was about 84.0 years in 2024, the latest available, with men at 81.09 years and women at 87.13, according to its Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The convergence is sharpest among men: Singaporean men, now at 81.8 years, have edged ahead of their Japanese counterparts, while Japan keeps its overall lead almost entirely through its women, who in 2024 set a world record for female life expectancy for the 40th time.
Both countries sit in a small global elite. By the United Nations’ World Population Prospects estimates, only a handful of countries and territories live longer, among them Hong Kong and wealthy European microstates such as Monaco and San Marino, most clustered between roughly 84 and 86 years against a global average of about 73.
Among Singapore residents, women continue to outlive men, reaching 86.0 years at birth in 2025 against 81.8 years for men, SingStat said. Over the decade, male life expectancy improved by 1.3 years from 80.5 years in 2015, outpacing the 0.9-year gain for women, from 85.1 years, slowly narrowing the 4.2-year gap between the sexes.
The gains extend deep into old age. Residents who reach 65 in 2025 can expect to live to 86.6 years on average, up 0.2 years from the previous year. For men at 65 the figure is 84.9 years and for women 88.1 years, improvements of 1.0 and 0.8 years respectively since 2015, according to SingStat.
More residents are also surviving into advanced old age. The department reported that the share of newborn boys expected to reach 85 rose from 42.3% a decade ago to 47.6%, while for newborn girls it climbed from 59% to 64.3%.
SingStat cautioned that the 2025 figures are preliminary and assume the mortality rates recorded in 2025 hold for a person’s entire life. They describe the population’s average longevity rather than forecast how long any individual will live, and do not account for future medical or lifestyle changes.
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