Benin - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Benin was 63.65 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 63.65 in 2020 and a minimum value of 37.77 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 37.77
1961 38.27
1962 38.77
1963 39.29
1964 39.82
1965 40.38
1966 40.96
1967 41.57
1968 42.21
1969 42.87
1970 43.56
1971 44.27
1972 44.99
1973 45.71
1974 46.43
1975 47.12
1976 47.77
1977 48.38
1978 48.93
1979 49.45
1980 49.93
1981 50.42
1982 50.93
1983 51.48
1984 52.06
1985 52.68
1986 53.33
1987 54.00
1988 54.65
1989 55.26
1990 55.80
1991 56.23
1992 56.54
1993 56.74
1994 56.83
1995 56.85
1996 56.82
1997 56.79
1998 56.79
1999 56.85
2000 57.00
2001 57.24
2002 57.56
2003 57.93
2004 58.35
2005 58.79
2006 59.24
2007 59.66
2008 60.05
2009 60.40
2010 60.72
2011 61.00
2012 61.26
2013 61.53
2014 61.80
2015 62.08
2016 62.38
2017 62.69
2018 63.00
2019 63.32
2020 63.65

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