McKinsey Health Institute

Adding years to life and life to years

This is a decisive moment in the history of human health. Over the last century, society has made incredible progress in extending life. But while life expectancy has increased, so has the amount of time spent in moderate to poor health. And significant inequities persist both across and within countries. It’s time to set a more ambitious aspiration. An aspiration for everyone on the planet to add years to their lives and life to their years.

Humanity mobilized against COVID-19 at a speed and scale previously unseen. While far from perfect, our successes should inspire us to challenge what we think is possible. At its best, our response to COVID-19 demonstrates that when resources and motivation coalesce, scientific breakthroughs, and large-scale behavior change are possible in very short periods of time.

The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) is an enduring, non-profit-generating entity within the firm. It was founded on the conviction that, over the next decade, humanity could add as much as 45 billion extra years of higher-quality life (roughly six years per person on average—and substantially more in some countries and populations). MHI’s mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to realize this possibility.

Hear MHI leaders discuss the mission to add up to 45 billion extra years of higher-quality life, roughly six years per person on average.

What we do

Convene and enable leaders

Bring leaders together across governments, non-profits, for-profits, and academia to share learnings and take action

Advance research

Design, conduct, invest in, and share research in conjunction with an ecosystem of experts and partner institutions

Create and promote open-access data assets

Work with partners across countries and domains to gather, secure, integrate, enrich, and openly share useful data

Stimulate innovation

Catalyze and scale innovation through crowdsourcing, competition, investment, and transparency

Featured event

McKinsey Health Institute at the United Nations General Assembly

This September, MHI returns to the United Nations General Assembly to drive action toward addressing mental health at global scale, increasing accessibility and quality of care for people living with disabilities, and more.