Is Singapore a blue zone? Life expectancy, healthspan and the 11-year gap

In 2023, the American author Dan Buettner added Singapore to his list of blue zones, the few places on Earth where people live unusually long lives. He called it "Blue Zone 2.0", a place where long life was built largely by public policy.

The long-life part holds up. Singapore now ranks first in the world for both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease estimates.

There is a catch. The same estimates suggest the average person here spends about 11 years of life in poor health, and that stretch has grown since 1990.

What is a blue zone?

A blue zone is a region where an unusually high share of people live to a very old age, often past 100. The idea comes from demography, the study of populations.

It began in Sardinia. In a 2004 study, demographer Michel Poulain, physician Gianni Pes and colleagues mapped where the island's validated centenarians were born, and found them concentrated in its central-east. They marked that area in blue on their map, and the name stuck. The zone they defined covers 14 villages: of the roughly 18,000 people born there between 1880 and 1900, 91 reached 100.

From 2005, Poulain worked with Buettner, then writing for National Geographic, to look for similar places. The five most often listed are:

• Sardinia, Italy
• Okinawa, Japan
• Nicoya, Costa Rica
• Ikaria, Greece
• Loma Linda, California

The list is not settled science. Poulain's own lists leave out Loma Linda, and some researchers question how reliable very old birth records are. One of them, Saul Newman, argues that record errors explain many claimed centenarians; his study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Why is Singapore called "Blue Zone 2.0"?

Because Singapore's long lives owe more to policy design than to tradition. Buettner, who popularised the idea of blue zones, gave Singapore the label in 2023. The country also features in the final episode of the Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, released that August.

In the original zones, long lives grew out of ways of living handed down over generations. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung was frank in an October 2023 speech that Singapore cannot claim the same: local food is often rich in "sugar, salt and santan", and the pace of life is fast. The documentary's explanation, he said, was design: public programmes and city planning that steer daily habits in a healthier direction.

A few of those nudges:

• Healthier SG: since July 2023, residents can enrol with one family doctor and a personal health plan, starting with those aged 60 and above.
• Nutri-Grade: since December 2022, packaged drinks are graded A to D. The two lowest grades must carry the mark on the front, and grade D drinks cannot be advertised.
• Greener streets: park connectors, cycling and jogging paths, and pedestrian-friendly Silver Zones.
• Family nearby: the Proximity Housing Grant gives families buying a resale flat $30,000 to live with their parents or children, or $20,000 to live within 4 km of them. Singles get half.

The minister took heart from the label, while noting that the series was made mostly to entertain and inform rather than to present research. Others are less convinced: Poulain has reportedly brushed off Singapore's claim to the title. Singapore's own goal goes further, a "Blue Zone 3.0" in which healthy habits become everyday norms rather than something policy has to prompt. The minister said that could take a generation.

What is Singapore's life expectancy?

A baby born in Singapore today can expect to live 83.9 years: 81.8 for boys and 86.0 for girls, according to the latest official figures for residents from the Department of Statistics Singapore (2025, preliminary). That is about 21 years longer than in 1960.

The pandemic pulled the figure down between 2021 and 2023, but it has since passed its 2019 level. Long life continues well past retirement age too: a resident turning 65 now can expect to live to about 86.6.

You may also see 85.4 years quoted. That is the Global Burden of Disease estimate for Singapore's whole population, including non-residents, and it ranks Singapore first in the world. The two figures use different methods, so compare like with like.

Why do Singaporeans spend 11 years in poor health?

Healthy life expectancy counts only the years spent in good health. In 2023 Singapore's was an estimated 74.1 years, the highest in the world, against a life expectancy of 85.4. The difference, 11.2 years by the study's unrounded estimates, is time lived with illness or disability. Researchers call it the morbidity gap.

That gap has widened from an estimated 8.9 years in 1990, according to a Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet Public Health in 2026. Our lifespans have grown faster than our healthy years. Even so, Singapore's gap is below the OECD average of 12.6 years, according to the Ministry of Health.

Women outlive men by about four years, but spend almost two more years in poor health. Figures are rounded, so rows may not add up exactly.

What fills those years? NUS Medicine, which co-authored the study, names musculoskeletal conditions, mental disorders, injuries, eye and ear conditions, and heart and blood vessel disease as the main causes. The top risk factors were high blood sugar, high body weight, workplace risks, high blood pressure and diet.

These are modelled estimates with wide margins of error, so read the exact figures as approximate. The direction is clear, though: most of us will live long lives, and more of that time is being spent unwell.

Healthy years can be designed

Singapore's story suggests that a long, healthy life is not only down to genes or tradition. The country chose policies that make healthier daily choices easier, and its health minister expects the full shift to take a generation.

Ageing itself can be studied and measured. To see how researchers approach it, read about the science of ageing.

Sources

• Hay SI, Nam P, Saqib H, et al. Global, regional, and national trends in the morbidity gap and contributing diseases, injuries, and risk factors, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. The Lancet Public Health 2026; 11(8): e487–e505. doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(26)00098-8. © 2026 The Author(s), published by Elsevier Ltd, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Figures selected and rounded, and table compiled, by LWG.
• Department of Statistics Singapore. Complete Life Tables for Singapore Resident Population, 2024–2025, 3 June 2026; and Life Expectancy By Sex, Annual (table M810501).
• Ministry of Health. Gap between average and healthy life expectancy of Singapore residents and trends over past 10 years, 8 September 2026.
• Ministry of Health. Speech by Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health, at the 3rd Centre for Research on Successful Ageing Symposium, 12 October 2023.
• Ministry of Health. Healthier SG enrolment programme to commence on 5 July, 2 July 2023; and Mandatory nutrition labelling and advertising prohibitions for Nutri-Grade beverages from 30 December 2022, 30 December 2021.
• CPF Board. A guide to enhanced CPF Housing and Proximity Grant, updated 25 March 2026.
• NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Press release on the Global Burden of Disease morbidity gap in Singapore, 22 July 2026.
• Poulain M, Pes GM, Grasland C, et al. Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia island: the AKEA study. Experimental Gerontology 2004; 39(9): 1423–1429.
• Poulain M, Herm A, Pes G. The Blue Zones: areas of exceptional longevity around the world. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2013; 11: 87–108.
• Newman SJ. Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud. bioRxiv preprint, doi 10.1101/704080.
• Wood S, Topol EJ. Are blue zones real? Answering that question is harder than ever. STAT (First Opinion), 4 May 2026.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have concerns about your health, speak to a doctor.

BLUE ZONES is a trademark of Blue Zones, LLC. LWG is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Blue Zones, LLC, Dan Buettner or Netflix.