Rwanda - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Rwanda was 69.33 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 69.33 in 2020 and a minimum value of 26.17 in 1993.

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 42.62
1961 42.94
1962 43.25
1963 43.54
1964 43.80
1965 44.03
1966 44.23
1967 44.38
1968 44.51
1969 44.61
1970 44.70
1971 44.77
1972 44.85
1973 44.95
1974 45.08
1975 45.32
1976 45.69
1977 46.23
1978 46.90
1979 47.66
1980 48.53
1981 49.50
1982 50.49
1983 51.34
1984 51.89
1985 51.69
1986 50.23
1987 47.41
1988 43.36
1989 38.44
1990 33.41
1991 29.25
1992 26.69
1993 26.17
1994 27.74
1995 31.04
1996 35.38
1997 39.84
1998 43.69
1999 46.64
2000 48.65
2001 49.94
2002 50.99
2003 52.18
2004 53.60
2005 55.25
2006 57.08
2007 58.92
2008 60.61
2009 62.13
2010 63.43
2011 64.52
2012 65.44
2013 66.22
2014 66.88
2015 67.45
2016 67.93
2017 68.34
2018 68.70
2019 69.02
2020 69.33

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