Nigeria - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Nigeria was 55.97 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 55.97 in 2020 and a minimum value of 38.45 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 38.45
1961 38.89
1962 39.32
1963 39.72
1964 40.11
1965 40.48
1966 40.84
1967 41.20
1968 41.57
1969 41.94
1970 42.34
1971 42.75
1972 43.17
1973 43.61
1974 44.06
1975 44.51
1976 44.96
1977 45.41
1978 45.85
1979 46.26
1980 46.63
1981 46.93
1982 47.15
1983 47.31
1984 47.39
1985 47.40
1986 47.38
1987 47.33
1988 47.27
1989 47.23
1990 47.19
1991 47.16
1992 47.13
1993 47.09
1994 47.05
1995 47.01
1996 46.99
1997 46.98
1998 47.00
1999 47.06
2000 47.19
2001 47.40
2002 47.69
2003 48.07
2004 48.52
2005 49.03
2006 49.57
2007 50.12
2008 50.66
2009 51.17
2010 51.66
2011 52.12
2012 52.58
2013 53.04
2014 53.51
2015 53.97
2016 54.42
2017 54.84
2018 55.24
2019 55.62
2020 55.97

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