Sierra Leone - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Sierra Leone was 55.88 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 55.88 in 2020 and a minimum value of 32.65 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 32.65
1961 32.99
1962 33.35
1963 33.73
1964 34.14
1965 34.58
1966 35.05
1967 35.55
1968 36.07
1969 36.60
1970 37.13
1971 37.65
1972 38.15
1973 38.63
1974 39.07
1975 39.48
1976 39.86
1977 40.21
1978 40.54
1979 40.84
1980 41.08
1981 41.26
1982 41.36
1983 41.38
1984 41.31
1985 41.15
1986 40.87
1987 40.50
1988 40.07
1989 39.59
1990 39.10
1991 38.62
1992 38.19
1993 37.83
1994 37.59
1995 37.51
1996 37.63
1997 37.95
1998 38.47
1999 39.16
2000 40.01
2001 40.98
2002 42.02
2003 43.10
2004 44.18
2005 45.25
2006 46.29
2007 47.31
2008 48.32
2009 49.30
2010 50.23
2011 51.09
2012 51.88
2013 52.59
2014 53.22
2015 53.77
2016 54.26
2017 54.70
2018 55.11
2019 55.50
2020 55.88

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