Malawi - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Malawi was 64.69 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 64.69 in 2020 and a minimum value of 36.67 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 36.67
1961 36.93
1962 37.18
1963 37.42
1964 37.66
1965 37.90
1966 38.17
1967 38.49
1968 38.87
1969 39.29
1970 39.76
1971 40.25
1972 40.76
1973 41.26
1974 41.74
1975 42.21
1976 42.65
1977 43.08
1978 43.50
1979 43.91
1980 44.30
1981 44.65
1982 44.95
1983 45.22
1984 45.43
1985 45.61
1986 45.75
1987 45.86
1988 45.96
1989 46.04
1990 46.10
1991 46.12
1992 46.11
1993 46.06
1994 45.97
1995 45.85
1996 45.68
1997 45.48
1998 45.29
1999 45.14
2000 45.09
2001 45.20
2002 45.52
2003 46.05
2004 46.82
2005 47.84
2006 49.12
2007 50.60
2008 52.21
2009 53.89
2010 55.56
2011 57.16
2012 58.63
2013 59.93
2014 61.04
2015 61.95
2016 62.68
2017 63.28
2018 63.80
2019 64.26
2020 64.69

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