Canada - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Canada was 83.90 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 84.20 in 2019 and a minimum value of 74.15 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 74.15
1961 74.45
1962 74.43
1963 74.50
1964 75.08
1965 75.14
1966 75.39
1967 75.66
1968 75.78
1969 76.01
1970 76.25
1971 76.63
1972 76.55
1973 76.83
1974 76.91
1975 77.23
1976 77.59
1977 77.97
1978 78.32
1979 78.59
1980 78.73
1981 79.10
1982 79.40
1983 79.60
1984 79.70
1985 79.80
1986 79.90
1987 80.10
1988 80.30
1989 80.50
1990 80.70
1991 80.90
1992 80.90
1993 81.00
1994 80.90
1995 81.00
1996 81.10
1997 81.30
1998 81.40
1999 81.60
2000 81.80
2001 81.90
2002 82.00
2003 82.20
2004 82.30
2005 82.60
2006 82.70
2007 82.90
2008 83.00
2009 83.30
2010 83.50
2011 83.60
2012 83.80
2013 83.90
2014 83.90
2015 84.00
2016 84.00
2017 84.00
2018 84.20
2019 84.20
2020 83.90

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