Hong Kong SAR, China - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Hong Kong SAR, China was 85.39 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 85.39 in 2020 and a minimum value of 66.96 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 66.96
1961 67.55
1962 68.11
1963 68.63
1964 69.10
1965 69.54
1966 69.95
1967 70.33
1968 70.69
1969 71.04
1970 71.39
1971 71.46
1972 71.46
1973 72.11
1974 72.61
1975 73.37
1976 72.82
1977 73.32
1978 73.58
1979 73.67
1980 74.67
1981 75.32
1982 75.43
1983 75.28
1984 76.03
1985 76.43
1986 76.69
1987 76.88
1988 77.08
1989 77.03
1990 77.38
1991 77.88
1992 77.68
1993 78.03
1994 78.53
1995 78.68
1996 79.63
1997 80.13
1998 80.13
1999 80.38
2000 80.88
2001 81.42
2002 81.43
2003 81.38
2004 81.83
2005 81.63
2006 82.38
2007 82.33
2008 82.38
2009 82.78
2010 82.98
2011 83.42
2012 83.48
2013 83.83
2014 83.98
2015 84.28
2016 84.23
2017 84.68
2018 84.93
2019 85.08
2020 85.39

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