Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - Country Ranking - Africa

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: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Seychelles 77.24 2020
2 Algeria 77.06 2020
3 Morocco 76.90 2020
4 Tunisia 76.89 2020
5 Mauritius 74.18 2020
6 Cabo Verde 73.17 2020
7 Libya 73.08 2020
8 Egypt 72.15 2020
9 São Tomé and Principe 70.58 2020
10 Botswana 69.79 2020
11 Rwanda 69.33 2020
12 Senegal 68.21 2020
13 Djibouti 67.49 2020
14 Madagascar 67.39 2020
15 Kenya 66.99 2020
16 Ethiopia 66.95 2020
17 Gabon 66.69 2020
18 Eritrea 66.68 2020
19 Tanzania 65.82 2020
20 Sudan 65.53 2020
21 Mauritania 65.13 2020
22 Congo 64.80 2020
23 Malawi 64.69 2020
24 Comoros 64.53 2020
25 Liberia 64.42 2020
26 South Africa 64.38 2020
27 Ghana 64.35 2020
28 Zambia 64.19 2020
29 Namibia 64.05 2020
30 Uganda 63.71 2020
31 Niger 62.79 2020
32 The Gambia 62.38 2020
33 Benin 62.08 2020
34 Burkina Faso 61.98 2020
35 Guinea 61.96 2020
36 Burundi 61.92 2020
37 Zimbabwe 61.74 2020
38 Angola 61.49 2020
39 Mozambique 61.39 2020
40 Togo 61.34 2020
41 Dem. Rep. Congo 60.97 2020
42 Eswatini 60.72 2020
43 Mali 59.69 2020
44 Cameroon 59.63 2020
45 Equatorial Guinea 59.06 2020
46 Guinea-Bissau 58.63 2020
47 Côte d'Ivoire 58.10 2020
48 Somalia 57.70 2020
49 Sierra Leone 55.07 2020
50 Nigeria 55.02 2020
51 Lesotho 54.84 2020
52 Chad 54.51 2020
53 Central African Republic 53.68 2020

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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