Dem. Rep. Congo - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Dem. Rep. Congo was 60.97 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 60.97 in 2020 and a minimum value of 41.10 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 41.10
1961 41.31
1962 41.53
1963 41.76
1964 42.00
1965 42.26
1966 42.55
1967 42.87
1968 43.21
1969 43.56
1970 43.92
1971 44.25
1972 44.55
1973 44.80
1974 45.03
1975 45.22
1976 45.41
1977 45.61
1978 45.83
1979 46.09
1980 46.36
1981 46.65
1982 46.94
1983 47.21
1984 47.46
1985 47.71
1986 47.96
1987 48.22
1988 48.50
1989 48.79
1990 49.04
1991 49.23
1992 49.31
1993 49.30
1994 49.22
1995 49.11
1996 49.04
1997 49.07
1998 49.23
1999 49.56
2000 50.04
2001 50.67
2002 51.39
2003 52.14
2004 52.92
2005 53.68
2006 54.40
2007 55.09
2008 55.74
2009 56.35
2010 56.91
2011 57.43
2012 57.91
2013 58.38
2014 58.83
2015 59.25
2016 59.66
2017 60.03
2018 60.37
2019 60.68
2020 60.97

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