Nigeria - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Nigeria was 55.02 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 55.02 in 2020 and a minimum value of 36.98 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 36.98
1961 37.43
1962 37.87
1963 38.29
1964 38.69
1965 39.07
1966 39.44
1967 39.81
1968 40.18
1969 40.57
1970 40.97
1971 41.39
1972 41.83
1973 42.28
1974 42.73
1975 43.19
1976 43.65
1977 44.10
1978 44.55
1979 44.96
1980 45.33
1981 45.64
1982 45.87
1983 46.02
1984 46.11
1985 46.13
1986 46.10
1987 46.05
1988 45.99
1989 45.94
1990 45.90
1991 45.88
1992 45.86
1993 45.85
1994 45.84
1995 45.85
1996 45.88
1997 45.92
1998 45.99
1999 46.10
2000 46.27
2001 46.51
2002 46.84
2003 47.24
2004 47.72
2005 48.25
2006 48.81
2007 49.37
2008 49.91
2009 50.42
2010 50.90
2011 51.35
2012 51.79
2013 52.23
2014 52.67
2015 53.11
2016 53.54
2017 53.95
2018 54.33
2019 54.69
2020 55.02

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