World - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in World was 70.57 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 70.60 in 2019 and a minimum value of 50.74 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 50.74
1961 51.22
1962 51.63
1963 52.13
1964 52.77
1965 53.41
1966 54.11
1967 54.80
1968 55.37
1969 55.98
1970 56.58
1971 57.12
1972 57.63
1973 58.10
1974 58.60
1975 59.04
1976 59.46
1977 59.85
1978 60.18
1979 60.51
1980 60.77
1981 61.09
1982 61.40
1983 61.65
1984 61.90
1985 62.17
1986 62.49
1987 62.74
1988 62.94
1989 63.13
1990 63.29
1991 63.46
1992 63.59
1993 63.68
1994 63.84
1995 64.03
1996 64.34
1997 64.64
1998 64.91
1999 65.14
2000 65.41
2001 65.70
2002 65.97
2003 66.24
2004 66.57
2005 66.84
2006 67.18
2007 67.50
2008 67.80
2009 68.14
2010 68.43
2011 68.74
2012 69.02
2013 69.31
2014 69.58
2015 69.78
2016 70.01
2017 70.23
2018 70.41
2019 70.60
2020 70.57

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