Rwanda - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Rwanda was 71.46 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 71.46 in 2020 and a minimum value of 27.57 in 1993.

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 44.06
1961 44.38
1962 44.68
1963 44.97
1964 45.24
1965 45.49
1966 45.70
1967 45.87
1968 46.01
1969 46.13
1970 46.22
1971 46.30
1972 46.37
1973 46.45
1974 46.58
1975 46.79
1976 47.14
1977 47.66
1978 48.31
1979 49.06
1980 49.92
1981 50.90
1982 51.89
1983 52.75
1984 53.31
1985 53.12
1986 51.69
1987 48.88
1988 44.86
1989 39.96
1990 34.94
1991 30.76
1992 28.16
1993 27.57
1994 29.04
1995 32.23
1996 36.46
1997 40.82
1998 44.59
1999 47.50
2000 49.50
2001 50.81
2002 51.91
2003 53.18
2004 54.68
2005 56.44
2006 58.37
2007 60.31
2008 62.11
2009 63.72
2010 65.11
2011 66.28
2012 67.26
2013 68.10
2014 68.82
2015 69.43
2016 69.95
2017 70.40
2018 70.78
2019 71.13
2020 71.46

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