Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) was 63.81 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 63.81 in 2020 and a minimum value of 39.78 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 39.78
1961 40.22
1962 40.65
1963 41.07
1964 41.48
1965 41.88
1966 42.27
1967 42.66
1968 43.05
1969 43.45
1970 43.85
1971 44.26
1972 44.66
1973 45.07
1974 45.47
1975 45.85
1976 46.23
1977 46.59
1978 46.94
1979 47.27
1980 47.60
1981 47.92
1982 48.25
1983 48.57
1984 48.89
1985 49.18
1986 49.43
1987 49.63
1988 49.77
1989 49.86
1990 49.94
1991 50.02
1992 50.13
1993 50.28
1994 50.46
1995 50.66
1996 50.89
1997 51.16
1998 51.48
1999 51.84
2000 52.26
2001 52.75
2002 53.30
2003 53.90
2004 54.55
2005 55.24
2006 55.96
2007 56.70
2008 57.43
2009 58.16
2010 58.86
2011 59.53
2012 60.17
2013 60.77
2014 61.33
2015 61.85
2016 62.32
2017 62.75
2018 63.13
2019 63.49
2020 63.81

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