Looking for ways to improve your longevity, increasing your longevity and your quality of life in the long run? If so, keep reading—this post will highlight the ten factors that are most likely to impact human longevity, from the stuff you choose (like your diet, exercise, and sleep quality) to the stuff that’s mostly outside your control (such as your genetics, socioeconomic status, and environment).
1. Genetics
Your genetics are the traits passed down to you by your parents (and, by extension, all your ancestors). They are encoded in your DNA as a “blueprint” established before birth.
According to the latest research, roughly 25 percent of the variation in our lifespans is determined by our genes. This leaves a whopping 75 percent of lifespan variation impacted by our environment and experiences—that is, the “nurture” aspect of “nature vs. nurture.”
Similarly, a 2016 review of the literature on epigenetics found that the majority of our lifespan is determined by environmental and behavioral influences that alter our epigenome, a term that refers to the set of chemical compounds that turn certain genes on and off.
2. Diet and Nutrition
Eating the right foods—foods that are high in nutrients while relatively low in added sugar, preservatives, and other unhealthy ingredients—can make a major difference in your overall lifespan. In fact, a 2023 study of the relationship between diet and longevity found that consuming a healthy diet has the potential to extend your lifespan by up to ten years.
Check out our post on the immense impact of diet on longevity for more details about this connection and evidence-based advice to guide you toward the healthiest dietary choices.
3. Physical Activity
Getting exercise on a consistent basis is one of the best ways not only to extend your lifespan, but also to maintain your mobility and your ability to care for yourself as you age.
Luckily, moderate-intensity exercise (such as walking, swimming, and weightlifting) provides all of these benefits, so there’s no need to take up running if that kind of activity doesn’t interest you. More specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services states that 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week is an ideal goal to shoot for.
For further advice on fun and accessible exercises for seniors, take a look at our post on the subject.
4. Mental Health and Stress Levels
Poor mental health and chronic stress are major contributors to physical health problems, from cardiovascular disease to autoimmune disorders and more. This review of the literature on lifetime stress exposure and health found that life stress increases our allostatic load (a physical measure of chronic stress), taking a toll on our health in all kinds of ways and thereby reducing life expectancy. Prioritize your mental health and do your best to avoid stressors to give yourself the best chance at a long and healthy life.
5. Medical Care and Health Screenings
Having access to high-quality medical care, and keeping up with regular health screenings such as cholesterol and blood pressure checks, can make the difference between catching a condition early and failing to do so.
For example, having high cholesterol increases your risks of developing heart disease or having a stroke. Adults over the age of 65 are advised to be screened for high cholesterol every year. If you keep up with this screening schedule, you’ll catch any concerning increases in your cholesterol levels early, which means you will be able to institute lifestyle changes and, if needed, take medications to mitigate the problem. But if you only get your cholesterol checked once every five years, you might have elevated levels for several years before you find out, increasing your risk of complications that could shorten your life.
6. Social Connections and Relationships
Having plenty of close relationships is another way to maximize your lifespan; conversely, chronic loneliness can actually decrease your lifespan. This is because chronic loneliness can lead to depression as well as numerous health problems that increase your risk of death.
In fact, a review of over 140 studies on this topic determined that being persistently lonely can increase risk of mortality by up to half (that’s even more than alcohol abuse, air pollution, or obesity!). Cultivating a healthy social life can thus support your mental and physical health.
7. Environmental Factors
Whether or not you live in a healthy environment makes an enormous difference in how long you’re likely to live. Your environment impacts exposure to pollutants and toxins as well as psychological stressors like noise pollution. If you live somewhere with high levels of air pollution, for example, you may be more likely to develop lung cancer. This explains why life expectancy varies significantly by zip code.
8. Education
Education level significantly impacts longevity. A 2024 review of the research on how education impacts mortality (looking at over 600 articles worldwide) found that each additional year of schooling decreases your mortality risk by 2 percent. This might not sound like much, but to put it in context, someone who got a college degree and a master’s degree could reduce their risk of mortality by as much as 34 percent.
In fact, one of the authors of the review stated, “You can compare the benefits of 18 years of education to eating the ideal amount of vegetables . . . Conversely, not going to school at all is just as bad for your health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for five years or drinking more than five drinks a day.” That’s right—lack of education actually poses a serious risk to your health!
9. Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status, which is linked to but not synonymous with education level, is another major factor in longevity. In the United States, for example, the top and bottom 1 percent of wage earners have a gap in life expectancy of 14.6 years for men and 10.1 years for women. Poverty is stressful and bad for your health, negatively impacting education, working conditions, housing security, safety, and more.
10. Sleep Quality
Getting enough sleep is crucial for overall health as well as maximizing life expectancy. Sleep is when your body heals and maintains itself, so going without sleep deprives your body of the routine maintenance it needs to thrive. This is why a 2024 review of research on this relationship found that men who get enough sleep live about five years longer than men who are chronically sleep-deprived. Among women, this difference is only two years, but still enough to make sleep a major priority.
Curious About Your Own Life Expectancy?
If you’re intrigued at the possibility of learning more about your own longevity, give our Life Expectancy Calculator a try. It can help you get a clearer sense of how many of the factors above might be impacting your life expectancy, drawing on the latest data to form an accurate estimate.
Visit our Life Lessons section for many more blog posts exploring longevity-related issues, especially the factors that influence them most strongly and advice on how you can improve your own life expectancy.
