Bhutan - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Bhutan was 72.08 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 72.08 in 2020 and a minimum value of 34.53 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 34.53
1961 34.89
1962 35.29
1963 35.73
1964 36.22
1965 36.75
1966 37.30
1967 37.88
1968 38.47
1969 39.06
1970 39.64
1971 40.19
1972 40.74
1973 41.26
1974 41.78
1975 42.31
1976 42.86
1977 43.45
1978 44.08
1979 44.75
1980 45.46
1981 46.20
1982 46.95
1983 47.70
1984 48.44
1985 49.17
1986 49.90
1987 50.63
1988 51.37
1989 52.12
1990 52.88
1991 53.63
1992 54.38
1993 55.13
1994 55.88
1995 56.64
1996 57.42
1997 58.24
1998 59.09
1999 59.97
2000 60.88
2001 61.81
2002 62.73
2003 63.62
2004 64.48
2005 65.29
2006 66.03
2007 66.71
2008 67.33
2009 67.88
2010 68.38
2011 68.84
2012 69.26
2013 69.66
2014 70.05
2015 70.42
2016 70.78
2017 71.13
2018 71.46
2019 71.78
2020 72.08

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