Cameroon - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Cameroon was 58.35 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 58.35 in 2020 and a minimum value of 40.58 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 40.58
1961 41.05
1962 41.52
1963 41.99
1964 42.45
1965 42.91
1966 43.36
1967 43.82
1968 44.28
1969 44.74
1970 45.22
1971 45.72
1972 46.22
1973 46.74
1974 47.26
1975 47.78
1976 48.30
1977 48.79
1978 49.26
1979 49.70
1980 50.11
1981 50.50
1982 50.87
1983 51.22
1984 51.53
1985 51.79
1986 51.98
1987 52.09
1988 52.11
1989 52.03
1990 51.86
1991 51.58
1992 51.21
1993 50.79
1994 50.35
1995 49.94
1996 49.60
1997 49.37
1998 49.27
1999 49.30
2000 49.49
2001 49.80
2002 50.20
2003 50.65
2004 51.13
2005 51.63
2006 52.11
2007 52.57
2008 53.03
2009 53.46
2010 53.89
2011 54.32
2012 54.78
2013 55.26
2014 55.76
2015 56.27
2016 56.77
2017 57.24
2018 57.66
2019 58.03
2020 58.35

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