Malawi - Life expectancy at birth, male (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, male (years) in Malawi was 61.52 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 61.52 in 2020 and a minimum value of 36.63 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 36.63
1961 36.86
1962 37.08
1963 37.28
1964 37.49
1965 37.70
1966 37.95
1967 38.25
1968 38.60
1969 39.00
1970 39.44
1971 39.91
1972 40.39
1973 40.86
1974 41.31
1975 41.74
1976 42.15
1977 42.54
1978 42.91
1979 43.26
1980 43.58
1981 43.85
1982 44.06
1983 44.21
1984 44.30
1985 44.34
1986 44.33
1987 44.28
1988 44.22
1989 44.14
1990 44.05
1991 43.95
1992 43.84
1993 43.71
1994 43.57
1995 43.43
1996 43.27
1997 43.10
1998 42.95
1999 42.85
2000 42.84
2001 42.97
2002 43.29
2003 43.81
2004 44.54
2005 45.50
2006 46.69
2007 48.08
2008 49.61
2009 51.21
2010 52.81
2011 54.33
2012 55.74
2013 56.98
2014 58.04
2015 58.90
2016 59.59
2017 60.16
2018 60.65
2019 61.10
2020 61.52

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