South Africa - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in South Africa was 64.38 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 64.38 in 2020 and a minimum value of 48.41 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 48.41
1961 48.78
1962 49.14
1963 49.51
1964 49.89
1965 50.28
1966 50.71
1967 51.15
1968 51.62
1969 52.11
1970 52.62
1971 53.16
1972 53.71
1973 54.28
1974 54.86
1975 55.43
1976 55.99
1977 56.54
1978 57.07
1979 57.59
1980 58.11
1981 58.64
1982 59.19
1983 59.77
1984 60.35
1985 60.95
1986 61.54
1987 62.11
1988 62.62
1989 63.04
1990 63.31
1991 63.38
1992 63.25
1993 62.89
1994 62.33
1995 61.56
1996 60.60
1997 59.49
1998 58.32
1999 57.14
2000 56.05
2001 55.09
2002 54.31
2003 53.75
2004 53.44
2005 53.45
2006 53.80
2007 54.45
2008 55.36
2009 56.46
2010 57.67
2011 58.90
2012 60.06
2013 61.10
2014 61.97
2015 62.65
2016 63.15
2017 63.54
2018 63.86
2019 64.13
2020 64.38

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