Ethiopia - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Ethiopia was 66.95 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 66.95 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 39.71
1963 40.29
1964 40.81
1965 41.27
1966 41.67
1967 42.03
1968 42.36
1969 42.66
1970 42.94
1971 43.21
1972 43.47
1973 43.69
1974 43.89
1975 44.04
1976 44.12
1977 44.10
1978 44.02
1979 43.88
1980 43.75
1981 43.68
1982 43.71
1983 43.89
1984 44.20
1985 44.63
1986 45.15
1987 45.68
1988 46.19
1989 46.67
1990 47.10
1991 47.50
1992 47.91
1993 48.34
1994 48.81
1995 49.30
1996 49.81
1997 50.32
1998 50.84
1999 51.37
2000 51.94
2001 52.60
2002 53.35
2003 54.21
2004 55.17
2005 56.22
2006 57.33
2007 58.47
2008 59.58
2009 60.65
2010 61.63
2011 62.51
2012 63.28
2013 63.96
2014 64.55
2015 65.05
2016 65.48
2017 65.87
2018 66.24
2019 66.60
2020 66.95

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