Ghana - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Ghana was 64.35 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 64.35 in 2020 and a minimum value of 45.84 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, or derived from male and female life expectancy at birth from sources such as: (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3)

See also:

Year Value
1960 45.84
1961 46.28
1962 46.70
1963 47.09
1964 47.47
1965 47.82
1966 48.16
1967 48.47
1968 48.77
1969 49.06
1970 49.34
1971 49.63
1972 49.91
1973 50.21
1974 50.51
1975 50.81
1976 51.11
1977 51.41
1978 51.70
1979 51.98
1980 52.28
1981 52.59
1982 52.92
1983 53.29
1984 53.69
1985 54.13
1986 54.62
1987 55.16
1988 55.72
1989 56.27
1990 56.78
1991 57.18
1992 57.46
1993 57.61
1994 57.62
1995 57.53
1996 57.37
1997 57.19
1998 57.05
1999 56.97
2000 57.00
2001 57.16
2002 57.43
2003 57.79
2004 58.23
2005 58.72
2006 59.23
2007 59.74
2008 60.22
2009 60.65
2010 61.03
2011 61.38
2012 61.72
2013 62.06
2014 62.42
2015 62.77
2016 63.12
2017 63.46
2018 63.78
2019 64.07
2020 64.35

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