Lesotho - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Lesotho was 51.70 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 54.97 in 1988 and a minimum value of 40.42 in 2006.

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. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Popu

See also:

Year Value
1960 43.07
1961 43.30
1962 43.51
1963 43.71
1964 43.91
1965 44.13
1966 44.36
1967 44.63
1968 44.94
1969 45.29
1970 45.69
1971 46.15
1972 46.66
1973 47.22
1974 47.81
1975 48.44
1976 49.10
1977 49.77
1978 50.46
1979 51.13
1980 51.78
1981 52.40
1982 52.99
1983 53.52
1984 53.99
1985 54.37
1986 54.67
1987 54.87
1988 54.97
1989 54.95
1990 54.78
1991 54.43
1992 53.91
1993 53.21
1994 52.35
1995 51.34
1996 50.18
1997 48.90
1998 47.56
1999 46.22
2000 44.92
2001 43.71
2002 42.63
2003 41.72
2004 41.01
2005 40.57
2006 40.42
2007 40.56
2008 40.95
2009 41.58
2010 42.41
2011 43.42
2012 44.54
2013 45.71
2014 46.88
2015 47.98
2016 48.97
2017 49.84
2018 50.58
2019 51.20
2020 51.70

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