Cameroon - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Cameroon was 60.90 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 60.90 in 2020 and a minimum value of 43.01 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 43.01
1961 43.48
1962 43.94
1963 44.40
1964 44.85
1965 45.30
1966 45.77
1967 46.25
1968 46.76
1969 47.29
1970 47.84
1971 48.41
1972 48.98
1973 49.55
1974 50.10
1975 50.64
1976 51.15
1977 51.65
1978 52.11
1979 52.55
1980 52.97
1981 53.37
1982 53.76
1983 54.14
1984 54.48
1985 54.77
1986 54.99
1987 55.12
1988 55.14
1989 55.07
1990 54.89
1991 54.62
1992 54.29
1993 53.93
1994 53.56
1995 53.21
1996 52.92
1997 52.70
1998 52.55
1999 52.50
2000 52.54
2001 52.68
2002 52.89
2003 53.17
2004 53.51
2005 53.89
2006 54.31
2007 54.78
2008 55.27
2009 55.79
2010 56.31
2011 56.84
2012 57.38
2013 57.90
2014 58.42
2015 58.91
2016 59.37
2017 59.80
2018 60.19
2019 60.56
2020 60.90

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