Benin - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Benin was 62.08 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 62.08 in 2020 and a minimum value of 37.27 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 37.27
1961 37.73
1962 38.19
1963 38.66
1964 39.13
1965 39.62
1966 40.11
1967 40.61
1968 41.12
1969 41.63
1970 42.15
1971 42.68
1972 43.23
1973 43.78
1974 44.34
1975 44.88
1976 45.40
1977 45.88
1978 46.34
1979 46.76
1980 47.19
1981 47.64
1982 48.15
1983 48.71
1984 49.34
1985 50.03
1986 50.79
1987 51.58
1988 52.37
1989 53.13
1990 53.81
1991 54.37
1992 54.78
1993 55.04
1994 55.17
1995 55.20
1996 55.17
1997 55.13
1998 55.14
1999 55.22
2000 55.39
2001 55.67
2002 56.03
2003 56.44
2004 56.89
2005 57.36
2006 57.82
2007 58.26
2008 58.65
2009 59.01
2010 59.32
2011 59.59
2012 59.84
2013 60.09
2014 60.35
2015 60.61
2016 60.89
2017 61.17
2018 61.47
2019 61.77
2020 62.08

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