Belgium - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Belgium was 78.60 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 79.80 in 2019 and a minimum value of 66.78 in 1960.

Definition: Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

Source: (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Popu

See also:

Year Value
1960 66.78
1961 67.56
1962 67.40
1963 67.11
1964 67.76
1965 67.64
1966 67.76
1967 67.93
1968 67.62
1969 67.56
1970 67.85
1971 67.88
1972 68.21
1973 68.45
1974 68.82
1975 68.82
1976 68.91
1977 69.53
1978 69.42
1979 69.94
1980 69.89
1981 70.29
1982 70.61
1983 70.63
1984 71.00
1985 71.13
1986 71.40
1987 72.00
1988 72.20
1989 72.34
1990 72.73
1991 72.88
1992 73.00
1993 72.96
1994 73.36
1995 73.47
1996 73.88
1997 74.20
1998 74.40
1999 74.40
2000 74.60
2001 74.90
2002 75.10
2003 75.30
2004 76.00
2005 76.20
2006 76.60
2007 77.10
2008 76.90
2009 77.40
2010 77.50
2011 78.00
2012 77.80
2013 78.10
2014 78.80
2015 78.70
2016 79.00
2017 79.20
2018 79.40
2019 79.80
2020 78.60

Development Relevance: Mortality rates for different age groups (infants, children, and adults) and overall mortality indicators (life expectancy at birth or survival to a given age) are important indicators of health status in a country. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. And they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

Limitations and Exceptions: Annual data series from United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects are interpolated data from 5-year period data. Therefore they may not reflect real events as much as observed data.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Life expectancy at birth used here is the average number of years a newborn is expected to live if mortality patterns at the time of its birth remain constant in the future. It reflects the overall mortality level of a population, and summarizes the mortality pattern that prevails across all age groups in a given year. It is calculated in a period life table which provides a snapshot of a population's mortality pattern at a given time. It therefore does not reflect the mortality pattern that a person actually experiences during his/her life, which can be calculated in a cohort life table. High mortality in young age groups significantly lowers the life expectancy at birth. But if a person survives his/her childhood of high mortality, he/she may live much longer. For example, in a population with a life expectancy at birth of 50, there may be few people dying at age 50. The life expectancy at birth may be low due to the high childhood mortality so that once a person survives his/her childhood, he/she may live much longer than 50 years.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Mortality