Saudi Arabia - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Saudi Arabia was 75.28 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 75.28 in 2020 and a minimum value of 45.64 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 45.64
1961 46.15
1962 46.67
1963 47.21
1964 47.78
1965 48.41
1966 49.11
1967 49.89
1968 50.75
1969 51.69
1970 52.70
1971 53.77
1972 54.87
1973 55.98
1974 57.08
1975 58.15
1976 59.18
1977 60.17
1978 61.12
1979 62.02
1980 62.86
1981 63.66
1982 64.41
1983 65.12
1984 65.80
1985 66.43
1986 67.03
1987 67.59
1988 68.12
1989 68.61
1990 69.08
1991 69.52
1992 69.95
1993 70.35
1994 70.73
1995 71.10
1996 71.45
1997 71.77
1998 72.06
1999 72.33
2000 72.56
2001 72.76
2002 72.92
2003 73.05
2004 73.16
2005 73.26
2006 73.36
2007 73.47
2008 73.60
2009 73.75
2010 73.92
2011 74.09
2012 74.25
2013 74.40
2014 74.53
2015 74.65
2016 74.76
2017 74.87
2018 75.00
2019 75.13
2020 75.28

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