IDA total - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in IDA total was 66.51 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 66.51 in 2020 and a minimum value of 42.78 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 42.78
1961 43.32
1962 43.85
1963 44.37
1964 44.87
1965 45.35
1966 45.80
1967 46.22
1968 46.60
1969 46.95
1970 47.28
1971 47.61
1972 47.95
1973 48.32
1974 48.73
1975 49.17
1976 49.65
1977 50.14
1978 50.65
1979 51.15
1980 51.63
1981 52.10
1982 52.54
1983 52.97
1984 53.37
1985 53.74
1986 54.07
1987 54.35
1988 54.60
1989 54.82
1990 55.01
1991 55.20
1992 55.38
1993 55.57
1994 55.77
1995 55.99
1996 56.23
1997 56.48
1998 56.75
1999 57.05
2000 57.38
2001 57.75
2002 58.16
2003 58.61
2004 59.11
2005 59.65
2006 60.21
2007 60.80
2008 61.38
2009 61.96
2010 62.52
2011 63.05
2012 63.55
2013 64.02
2014 64.47
2015 64.88
2016 65.26
2017 65.61
2018 65.93
2019 66.23
2020 66.51

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