Benin - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Benin was 60.49 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 60.49 in 2020 and a minimum value of 36.82 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 36.82
1961 37.23
1962 37.64
1963 38.05
1964 38.46
1965 38.86
1966 39.26
1967 39.64
1968 40.01
1969 40.37
1970 40.73
1971 41.09
1972 41.46
1973 41.84
1974 42.24
1975 42.65
1976 43.03
1977 43.40
1978 43.75
1979 44.10
1980 44.46
1981 44.87
1982 45.36
1983 45.94
1984 46.60
1985 47.36
1986 48.20
1987 49.11
1988 50.02
1989 50.92
1990 51.73
1991 52.40
1992 52.91
1993 53.24
1994 53.41
1995 53.46
1996 53.43
1997 53.39
1998 53.40
1999 53.50
2000 53.70
2001 54.02
2002 54.42
2003 54.87
2004 55.35
2005 55.85
2006 56.33
2007 56.79
2008 57.20
2009 57.56
2010 57.87
2011 58.14
2012 58.38
2013 58.62
2014 58.85
2015 59.10
2016 59.36
2017 59.63
2018 59.91
2019 60.20
2020 60.49

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