Lao PDR - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Lao PDR was 68.22 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 68.22 in 2020 and a minimum value of 43.20 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 43.20
1961 43.51
1962 43.82
1963 44.12
1964 44.42
1965 44.73
1966 45.03
1967 45.34
1968 45.65
1969 45.96
1970 46.27
1971 46.58
1972 46.88
1973 47.17
1974 47.45
1975 47.72
1976 47.99
1977 48.24
1978 48.50
1979 48.77
1980 49.06
1981 49.39
1982 49.75
1983 50.16
1984 50.61
1985 51.08
1986 51.57
1987 52.04
1988 52.50
1989 52.94
1990 53.36
1991 53.80
1992 54.26
1993 54.75
1994 55.29
1995 55.85
1996 56.44
1997 57.04
1998 57.64
1999 58.23
2000 58.80
2001 59.37
2002 59.94
2003 60.50
2004 61.07
2005 61.63
2006 62.18
2007 62.73
2008 63.27
2009 63.80
2010 64.31
2011 64.80
2012 65.27
2013 65.72
2014 66.14
2015 66.55
2016 66.92
2017 67.28
2018 67.61
2019 67.92
2020 68.22

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