# How Long Do Corals Live?

> Coral lifespan is typically Colonies can live decades to centuries. What shortens or extends life, life stages, and status (Least Concern).

- **Species:** Coral (*Anthozoa*)
- **Conservation status:** Least Concern
- **Diet:** Filter feeder plus algae symbionts
- **Habitat:** Warm, shallow tropical seas worldwide
- **Lifespan:** Colonies can live decades to centuries
- **Top speed:** None; corals are fixed in place
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/coral/how-long-do-coral-live/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/coral/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

Corals are tiny colonial animals of the class Anthozoa that build the vast limestone structures we call reefs. Each coral is a colony of soft-bodied polyps, only millimetres wide, that secrete a hard calcium-carbonate skeleton and live fixed in place in warm, shallow tropical seas. Reef-building corals depend on symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae for most of their food and colour, and colonies can survive for decades to centuries.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a prognosis for one named animal. This page is a species lifespan range.

## What corals are

Although they look like colourful rocks or plants, corals are animals, closely related to sea anemones and jellyfish. A single coral is actually a colony of tiny individuals called polyps, each only a few millimetres across, joined by shared living tissue. Reef-building species secrete a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate beneath their bodies, and generation after generation builds on the remains of the last. Over centuries these skeletons accumulate into the massive limestone framework of a coral reef.

## Help protect the Coral

Even familiar animals lose ground as wild habitat keeps shrinking worldwide.

[Donate to wildlife protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/donate/)

---
Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/coral/how-long-do-coral-live/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.