Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - Country Ranking - Middle East

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: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Israel 82.70 2020
2 Qatar 80.36 2020
3 Lebanon 79.00 2020
4 United Arab Emirates 78.12 2020
5 Oman 78.08 2020
6 Turkey 77.93 2020
7 Bahrain 77.42 2020
8 Iran 76.87 2020
9 Kuwait 75.59 2020
10 Saudi Arabia 75.28 2020
11 Jordan 74.66 2020
12 Syrian Arab Republic 73.65 2020
13 Uzbekistan 71.85 2020
14 Kyrgyz Republic 71.80 2020
15 Tajikistan 71.30 2020
16 Iraq 70.75 2020
17 Turkmenistan 68.31 2020
18 Pakistan 67.43 2020
19 Yemen 66.18 2020
20 Afghanistan 65.17 2020

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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