Korea - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Korea was 86.50 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 86.50 in 2020 and a minimum value of 59.51 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 59.51
1961 60.07
1962 60.53
1963 60.96
1964 61.39
1965 61.88
1966 62.45
1967 63.09
1968 63.76
1969 64.48
1970 65.80
1971 66.30
1972 66.80
1973 67.30
1974 67.80
1975 68.20
1976 68.60
1977 69.10
1978 69.50
1979 69.90
1980 70.40
1981 70.90
1982 71.50
1983 71.90
1984 72.60
1985 73.20
1986 73.80
1987 74.30
1988 74.80
1989 75.30
1990 75.90
1991 76.40
1992 76.80
1993 77.30
1994 77.70
1995 77.90
1996 78.30
1997 78.70
1998 79.00
1999 79.20
2000 79.70
2001 80.10
2002 80.30
2003 80.80
2004 81.20
2005 81.60
2006 82.10
2007 82.50
2008 83.00
2009 83.40
2010 83.60
2011 84.00
2012 84.20
2013 84.60
2014 85.00
2015 85.20
2016 85.40
2017 85.70
2018 85.70
2019 86.30
2020 86.50

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