Central African Republic - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Central African Republic was 53.68 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 53.68 in 2020 and a minimum value of 36.25 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 36.25
1961 36.72
1962 37.19
1963 37.68
1964 38.20
1965 38.75
1966 39.36
1967 40.01
1968 40.70
1969 41.44
1970 42.22
1971 43.04
1972 43.87
1973 44.70
1974 45.50
1975 46.28
1976 46.99
1977 47.65
1978 48.23
1979 48.74
1980 49.15
1981 49.48
1982 49.71
1983 49.87
1984 49.96
1985 49.97
1986 49.91
1987 49.80
1988 49.62
1989 49.40
1990 49.10
1991 48.73
1992 48.27
1993 47.73
1994 47.14
1995 46.53
1996 45.92
1997 45.35
1998 44.86
1999 44.46
2000 44.19
2001 44.06
2002 44.06
2003 44.18
2004 44.41
2005 44.74
2006 45.16
2007 45.64
2008 46.16
2009 46.72
2010 47.31
2011 47.95
2012 48.64
2013 49.37
2014 50.13
2015 50.88
2016 51.59
2017 52.24
2018 52.81
2019 53.28
2020 53.68

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