Include longevity in the education calculation: each additional year is associated with about 1.9% lower adult mortality
Each additional year of education is associated with an average reduction of about 1.9% in adult mortality risk. The association is strongest at ages 18–49, at about 2.9% per year, compared with 0.8% above age 70. People who stay in school often start with greater advantages, so the studies cannot fully separate the effect of education itself from those advantages.
What it takes
No direct cost for making the comparison. Continuing education takes years of time and effort; see entry 4 for tuition assistance. The difficult part is persisting without dropping out.
What you may gain
A systematic review and meta-analysis searched research published from January 1980 through May 2023 and included 603 studies, 10,355 observations, and 70 locations in 59 countries. Education showed a dose-response association with adult all-cause mortality: more education was associated with a greater reduction. Each additional year was associated with 1.9% lower mortality risk on average, with a 95% uncertainty interval of 1.8–2.0%. The estimate was 2.9% per year at ages 18–49 (2.8–3.0%) and 0.8% above age 70 (0.6–1.0%). The analysis found no difference by sex or by countries' development level, measured using the Socio-demographic Index.
Context & considerations
Disputed interpretation. The authors reported publication bias (p<0.0001): studies with more striking results may be more likely to appear in print. Results also varied substantially between studies. These were observational follow-up studies, not randomized experiments. Years of schooling are entangled with family circumstances, location, and occupation, so the analysis cannot determine how much of the 1.9% reflects education itself and how much reflects the pre-existing advantages of people who remain in school. It strongly supports an association between more education and longer life; it does not mean enrolling in education will extend your life by 1.9%. You are the beneficiary.
Research & references
IHME-CHAIN Collaborators (2024). Effects of education on adult mortality: a global systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 9(3), e155–e165. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00306-7