South Asia - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in South Asia was 71.26 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 71.26 in 2020 and a minimum value of 41.40 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 41.40
1961 42.03
1962 42.66
1963 43.29
1964 43.93
1965 44.57
1966 45.19
1967 45.80
1968 46.39
1969 46.97
1970 47.55
1971 48.14
1972 48.78
1973 49.44
1974 50.15
1975 50.87
1976 51.58
1977 52.28
1978 52.93
1979 53.53
1980 54.08
1981 54.57
1982 55.03
1983 55.45
1984 55.86
1985 56.26
1986 56.68
1987 57.11
1988 57.57
1989 58.06
1990 58.58
1991 59.11
1992 59.66
1993 60.21
1994 60.76
1995 61.29
1996 61.81
1997 62.31
1998 62.79
1999 63.25
2000 63.69
2001 64.11
2002 64.52
2003 64.92
2004 65.32
2005 65.72
2006 66.14
2007 66.58
2008 67.03
2009 67.50
2010 67.97
2011 68.42
2012 68.85
2013 69.25
2014 69.61
2015 69.94
2016 70.23
2017 70.51
2018 70.76
2019 71.01
2020 71.26

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