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| - ON January 15, 2026, an X user sparked a conversation after sharing a post about the serene view and the traffic-free state of a street in Frutigen, Switzerland, comparing the living conditions in Switzerland and Nigeria. In the post, he claimed that the life expectancy in Switzerland is way higher than the life expectancy in Nigeria.
This post generated conversation among users, with some questioning the accuracy of the claim. The X user @Emarged wrote:
“The life expectancy in Switzerland is 84.5 years, while the life expectancy in Nigeria is 54 years”
As of January 18, the post had generated 51,700 views, 1,798 likes and over 370 reposts.
CLAIM
The life expectancy in Switzerland is 84.5 years, while the life expectancy in Nigeria is 54 years.
FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is TRUE.
According to Britannica, life expectancy is the “estimated average number of additional years that a person of a given age can expect to live. The most common measure of life expectancy is life expectancy at birth. The estimate, in effect, projects the age-specific mortality (death) rates for a given period over the entire lifetime of the population born (or alive) during that time.
The measure differs considerably by sex, age, race, and geographic location. Therefore, life expectancy is commonly given for specific categories, rather than for the population in general.”
Britannica explains that “Life expectancy is calculated by constructing a life table. A life table incorporates data on age-specific death rates for the population in question, which requires enumeration data for the number of people and the number of deaths at each age for that population. Those numbers typically are derived from national census and vital statistics data, and from them the average life expectancy for each of the age groups within the population can be calculated.”
According to data published on Worldometer’s Life Expectancy by Country ranking (2025), Switzerland’s life expectancy is reported as 84.23 years, placing it among the top 5 countries globally while Nigeria ranked last on the list, with a life expectancy of 54.78 years, marking it the lowest in the world.
Switzerland’s high ranking is linked to several factors, including accessibility of the healthcare system, public health policies, national income, and a lifestyle that promotes physical activity and healthy living. Other contributing factors include low obesity rates, clean environmental conditions, and a diet rich in fresh and nutritious foods. These conditions support preventive care, education, and overall quality of life.
Nigeria’s low ranking reflects long-standing structural challenges, such as a heavy burden of infectious diseases, limited access to quality healthcare, and frequent industrial actions by health workers. Broader socio-economic issues, including widespread poverty, insecurity, malnutrition, and environmental degradation, continue to undermine health outcomes and reduce life expectancy across the country.
Similarly, World Bank Open Data (2023) reported Switzerland’s life expectancy at about 84 years, compared to 54 years for Nigeria.
These figures, despite minor variations across sources and years, consistently show that life expectancy in Switzerland is significantly higher than in Nigeria.
VERDICT
The claim that life expectancy in Switzerland is higher than life expectancy in Nigeria is TRUE according to publicly available records.
Seasoned writer and literary curator, Zainab Abdulrasaq is a factchecker for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached on IG @blackbookishgirl or zabdulrasaq@icirnigeria.org
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