Tonga - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Tonga was 71.02 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 71.02 in 2020 and a minimum value of 59.89 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 59.89
1961 60.28
1962 60.69
1963 61.10
1964 61.53
1965 61.96
1966 62.39
1967 62.81
1968 63.22
1969 63.62
1970 64.00
1971 64.36
1972 64.70
1973 65.02
1974 65.32
1975 65.61
1976 65.89
1977 66.15
1978 66.40
1979 66.65
1980 66.89
1981 67.13
1982 67.37
1983 67.60
1984 67.83
1985 68.05
1986 68.27
1987 68.46
1988 68.64
1989 68.80
1990 68.94
1991 69.05
1992 69.14
1993 69.22
1994 69.29
1995 69.35
1996 69.41
1997 69.47
1998 69.54
1999 69.60
2000 69.67
2001 69.73
2002 69.77
2003 69.80
2004 69.82
2005 69.84
2006 69.85
2007 69.88
2008 69.92
2009 69.98
2010 70.06
2011 70.15
2012 70.24
2013 70.34
2014 70.43
2015 70.52
2016 70.61
2017 70.70
2018 70.80
2019 70.91
2020 71.02

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