Afghanistan - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Afghanistan was 66.74 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 66.74 in 2020 and a minimum value of 33.31 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 33.31
1961 33.84
1962 34.36
1963 34.87
1964 35.36
1965 35.85
1966 36.34
1967 36.82
1968 37.31
1969 37.82
1970 38.33
1971 38.85
1972 39.39
1973 39.93
1974 40.49
1975 41.06
1976 41.66
1977 42.27
1978 42.89
1979 43.54
1980 44.21
1981 44.90
1982 45.61
1983 46.33
1984 47.07
1985 47.81
1986 48.55
1987 49.29
1988 50.02
1989 50.74
1990 51.44
1991 52.12
1992 52.77
1993 53.41
1994 54.01
1995 54.59
1996 55.14
1997 55.66
1998 56.16
1999 56.65
2000 57.12
2001 57.60
2002 58.08
2003 58.58
2004 59.09
2005 59.63
2006 60.18
2007 60.75
2008 61.33
2009 61.90
2010 62.46
2011 63.00
2012 63.51
2013 64.00
2014 64.45
2015 64.88
2016 65.28
2017 65.66
2018 66.03
2019 66.39
2020 66.74

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