Human Life Value Calculator
Human life value measures the economic worth of your future earnings to your family: the present value of the income you would provide over your remaining working years. This calculator discounts your net annual income, optionally growing it each year, over the years until retirement. It is the income-based counterpart to a needs analysis and a common way to size life insurance.
Human life value formula
For each year t from 1 to N:
income in year t = income * (1 + g)^(t-1)
present value of year t = income in year t / (1 + r)^t
Human life value = sum of all yearly present values
where g = growth rate, r = discount rate, N = years to retirement
Income is the amount net of taxes and personal consumption. Each year's income is grown then discounted to today and summed.
Reading the result
- Human life value is the present value of the future income stream in today's money.
- Total undiscounted income is the simple sum of every year's grown income, with no discounting.
- A higher discount rate lowers the human life value; a higher growth rate raises it.
- Compare this income-based figure with a needs analysis before choosing cover.
Human life value: frequently asked questions
What is human life value?
Human life value (HLV) is the economic worth of a person's future earnings to their dependents, measured as the present value of the income they would earn over their remaining working years after deducting what they spend on themselves and taxes. It is one of the standard methods for sizing life insurance.
How is human life value calculated?
Take your net annual income, the income left for your family after taxes and your own living costs, and find its present value over the years until retirement, discounted at an assumed rate. This calculator treats income as a level stream and discounts it to today, optionally letting income grow each year.
Why subtract personal consumption and taxes?
Human life value measures the income that supports others, not gross pay. The portion you spend on yourself and the tax you pay would not be lost to your dependents if you were gone, so it is excluded. Enter your income net of those amounts.
How does human life value differ from a needs analysis?
Human life value is income-based: it values the earnings stream. A needs analysis such as the DIME method is goal-based: it adds debts, mortgage, and education costs. The two often give different figures, and many planners look at both before deciding on cover.
Sources and method
- Human life value is the present value of a growing income stream over the working years, a standard discounted-cash-flow identity. All inputs are user-editable; no figure is hardcoded.
- U.S. Department of Labor: Life Insurance plan information.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 19 June 2026. See our methodology.