Afghanistan - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Afghanistan was 65.17 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 65.17 in 2020 and a minimum value of 32.45 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 32.45
1961 32.96
1962 33.47
1963 33.97
1964 34.46
1965 34.95
1966 35.43
1967 35.91
1968 36.40
1969 36.90
1970 37.41
1971 37.93
1972 38.46
1973 39.00
1974 39.56
1975 40.13
1976 40.72
1977 41.32
1978 41.94
1979 42.59
1980 43.24
1981 43.92
1982 44.62
1983 45.32
1984 46.04
1985 46.76
1986 47.49
1987 48.21
1988 48.93
1989 49.64
1990 50.33
1991 51.00
1992 51.64
1993 52.26
1994 52.84
1995 53.40
1996 53.92
1997 54.42
1998 54.91
1999 55.38
2000 55.84
2001 56.31
2002 56.78
2003 57.27
2004 57.77
2005 58.29
2006 58.83
2007 59.38
2008 59.93
2009 60.48
2010 61.03
2011 61.55
2012 62.05
2013 62.53
2014 62.97
2015 63.38
2016 63.76
2017 64.13
2018 64.49
2019 64.83
2020 65.17

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