Dem. People's Rep. Korea - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Dem. People's Rep. Korea was 68.80 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 68.80 in 2020 and a minimum value of 48.42 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 48.42
1961 48.71
1962 49.00
1963 49.43
1964 50.07
1965 50.95
1966 52.01
1967 53.14
1968 54.24
1969 55.28
1970 56.23
1971 57.10
1972 57.90
1973 58.67
1974 59.39
1975 60.06
1976 60.68
1977 61.25
1978 61.77
1979 62.24
1980 62.66
1981 63.05
1982 63.41
1983 63.75
1984 64.07
1985 64.40
1986 64.75
1987 65.13
1988 65.51
1989 65.83
1990 66.00
1991 65.86
1992 65.36
1993 64.52
1994 63.42
1995 62.23
1996 61.19
1997 60.50
1998 60.27
1999 60.53
2000 61.18
2001 62.08
2002 62.99
2003 63.76
2004 64.31
2005 64.65
2006 64.85
2007 65.02
2008 65.25
2009 65.57
2010 65.96
2011 66.40
2012 66.84
2013 67.23
2014 67.56
2015 67.84
2016 68.06
2017 68.25
2018 68.44
2019 68.62
2020 68.80

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