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

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in South Africa was 60.97 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 60.97 in 2020 and a minimum value of 45.88 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. (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 45.88
1961 46.26
1962 46.63
1963 47.01
1964 47.41
1965 47.82
1966 48.25
1967 48.71
1968 49.20
1969 49.70
1970 50.23
1971 50.79
1972 51.36
1973 51.95
1974 52.54
1975 53.13
1976 53.70
1977 54.27
1978 54.82
1979 55.35
1980 55.87
1981 56.41
1982 56.97
1983 57.54
1984 58.12
1985 58.68
1986 59.21
1987 59.69
1988 60.08
1989 60.36
1990 60.47
1991 60.39
1992 60.11
1993 59.63
1994 58.98
1995 58.17
1996 57.22
1997 56.18
1998 55.11
1999 54.08
2000 53.14
2001 52.34
2002 51.72
2003 51.28
2004 51.06
2005 51.10
2006 51.44
2007 52.04
2008 52.85
2009 53.83
2010 54.91
2011 55.99
2012 57.03
2013 57.95
2014 58.73
2015 59.34
2016 59.80
2017 60.16
2018 60.46
2019 60.73
2020 60.97

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