Global and U.S. Life Expectancy for a Person Born in 2015
According to the World Health Organization, global average life expectancy at birth reached approximately 73 years in 2019, the latest comprehensive pre-pandemic baseline used by demographers, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a life expectancy at birth of roughly 77 years for 2022, the most recent full-year estimate available. For someone born in 2015, these figures suggest a statistical life span in the mid-to-high 70s to low 80s, depending on country, lifestyle, and access to health care, with the World Bank data portal showing that high-income countries averaged over 80 years of life expectancy around 2023. The U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics update these cohorts regularly, and the Social Security Administration's 2023 Period Life Table remains a standard reference for planners, while the WHO Global Health Observatory provides country-specific dashboards updated annually.
Actuarial tables from the Society of Actuaries and the Continuous Mortality Investigation show that a child born in 2015 in the United States has a reasonable statistical chance of reaching age 80, with roughly a 50 percent probability of surviving to about 85, based on 2022 period life tables and cohort projections published by the National Institute on Aging and the Human Mortality Database. The CDC's National Vital Statistics Reports and the Kaiser Family Foundation highlight that mortality improvements have slowed in recent years, partly due to COVID-19, drug overdoses, and chronic disease trends, which slightly reduce the projected lifespan compared with earlier cohorts. The U.S. Government Accountability Office notes that these shifts affect everything from retirement program solvency to personal savings goals, and the Congressional Budget Office regularly models how changing longevity assumptions influence federal trust funds and household planning.
Financial Planning and Investment Horizons for a 2015 Birth Year
Retirement Age and Savings Benchmarks
The full retirement age for Social Security benefits for someone born in 2015 is 67, per the Social Security Administration, and the Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Confidence Survey shows that roughly 40 percent of workers feel they have not saved enough, with the median retirement account balance for households headed by someone under 35 remaining below $15,000 as of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances. Fidelity Investments recommends saving at least 15 percent of pre-tax income annually, including employer contributions, and suggests a target of roughly 10 to 12 times your final salary by age 67, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Surveys indicate that average annual spending for households headed by a 65-and-older adult is around $52,000 in current dollars. Vanguard and BlackRock's long-term capital market assumptions project nominal equity returns of roughly 7 to 9 percent over decades, and the SEC's Investor.gov site offers compound interest calculators that let a person born in 2015 model different monthly contribution scenarios.
Key Risks and Longevity Insurance
The Society of Actuaries and the Employee Benefit Research Institute point to the risk of outliving savings, especially given that healthy 65-year-olds today have a roughly 50 percent chance that at least one spouse will live past 90, according to the Society of Actuaries' Longevity Illustrator tool. Annuity products from insurers such as New York Life and Pacific Life can provide guaranteed income for life, and the SEC's Investor.gov explains how deferred income annuities work, while the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' consumer resources help compare regulated products. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances shows that only about 30 percent of families own any annuity