Eritrea - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Eritrea was 66.68 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 66.68 in 2020 and a minimum value of 38.42 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 38.42
1961 39.08
1962 39.69
1963 40.26
1964 40.77
1965 41.22
1966 41.63
1967 42.02
1968 42.39
1969 42.77
1970 43.16
1971 43.55
1972 43.93
1973 44.32
1974 44.69
1975 45.05
1976 45.40
1977 45.74
1978 46.06
1979 46.36
1980 46.65
1981 46.93
1982 47.19
1983 47.44
1984 47.70
1985 47.96
1986 48.23
1987 48.52
1988 48.84
1989 49.19
1990 49.59
1991 50.04
1992 50.55
1993 51.10
1994 51.70
1995 52.32
1996 52.94
1997 53.55
1998 54.14
1999 54.71
2000 55.27
2001 55.86
2002 56.50
2003 57.19
2004 57.93
2005 58.71
2006 59.49
2007 60.24
2008 60.95
2009 61.60
2010 62.19
2011 62.73
2012 63.24
2013 63.73
2014 64.20
2015 64.66
2016 65.11
2017 65.54
2018 65.94
2019 66.32
2020 66.68

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