Pacific island small states - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Pacific island small states was 70.23 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 70.23 in 2020 and a minimum value of 56.51 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 56.51
1961 56.96
1962 57.39
1963 57.80
1964 58.19
1965 58.56
1966 58.91
1967 59.23
1968 59.52
1969 59.80
1970 60.07
1971 60.34
1972 60.62
1973 60.90
1974 61.20
1975 61.52
1976 61.84
1977 62.17
1978 62.49
1979 62.80
1980 63.10
1981 63.39
1982 63.66
1983 63.92
1984 64.16
1985 64.38
1986 64.56
1987 64.92
1988 64.85
1989 64.96
1990 65.10
1991 65.15
1992 65.23
1993 65.32
1994 65.41
1995 65.60
1996 65.69
1997 65.87
1998 66.08
1999 66.34
2000 66.56
2001 66.80
2002 67.03
2003 67.25
2004 67.45
2005 67.64
2006 67.79
2007 67.95
2008 68.12
2009 68.30
2010 68.49
2011 68.68
2012 68.88
2013 69.08
2014 69.27
2015 69.44
2016 69.61
2017 69.77
2018 69.93
2019 70.08
2020 70.23

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