In this paper, we revisit the link between natural resources and quality of life, measured by life expectancy over the period 1990–2011. Using fixed effect and panel‐corrected standard‐errors regression estimators we document that there is inverted U‐shaped relationship between natural‐resource dependence and longevity. This implies that in the long run, natural‐resource dependence hampers human development. This effect remains robust after a set of robustness checks.