Iraq - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Iraq was 70.75 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 70.75 in 2020 and a minimum value of 48.02 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 48.02
1961 49.22
1962 50.41
1963 51.58
1964 52.73
1965 53.84
1966 54.89
1967 55.85
1968 56.72
1969 57.50
1970 58.20
1971 58.86
1972 59.48
1973 60.09
1974 60.64
1975 61.08
1976 61.29
1977 61.24
1978 60.93
1979 60.44
1980 59.88
1981 59.45
1982 59.28
1983 59.45
1984 60.00
1985 60.88
1986 61.98
1987 63.15
1988 64.25
1989 65.21
1990 66.01
1991 66.65
1992 67.19
1993 67.67
1994 68.09
1995 68.45
1996 68.73
1997 68.94
1998 69.06
1999 69.11
2000 69.08
2001 68.98
2002 68.83
2003 68.64
2004 68.44
2005 68.27
2006 68.16
2007 68.13
2008 68.19
2009 68.34
2010 68.57
2011 68.85
2012 69.15
2013 69.44
2014 69.70
2015 69.93
2016 70.12
2017 70.29
2018 70.45
2019 70.60
2020 70.75

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