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

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Dem. Rep. Congo was 59.42 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 59.42 in 2020 and a minimum value of 39.64 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 39.64
1961 39.86
1962 40.07
1963 40.30
1964 40.54
1965 40.80
1966 41.09
1967 41.41
1968 41.75
1969 42.11
1970 42.46
1971 42.79
1972 43.09
1973 43.35
1974 43.58
1975 43.77
1976 43.96
1977 44.16
1978 44.39
1979 44.64
1980 44.92
1981 45.21
1982 45.50
1983 45.77
1984 46.02
1985 46.26
1986 46.51
1987 46.78
1988 47.06
1989 47.34
1990 47.59
1991 47.77
1992 47.86
1993 47.85
1994 47.77
1995 47.66
1996 47.60
1997 47.62
1998 47.79
1999 48.11
2000 48.60
2001 49.22
2002 49.94
2003 50.70
2004 51.47
2005 52.23
2006 52.96
2007 53.65
2008 54.31
2009 54.92
2010 55.48
2011 56.00
2012 56.48
2013 56.94
2014 57.38
2015 57.79
2016 58.17
2017 58.53
2018 58.85
2019 59.15
2020 59.42

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