South Sudan - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in South Sudan was 58.10 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 58.10 in 2020 and a minimum value of 31.70 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 31.70
1961 32.13
1962 32.55
1963 32.98
1964 33.40
1965 33.83
1966 34.25
1967 34.66
1968 35.05
1969 35.43
1970 35.81
1971 36.19
1972 36.58
1973 36.97
1974 37.38
1975 37.77
1976 38.12
1977 38.42
1978 38.66
1979 38.86
1980 39.03
1981 39.21
1982 39.41
1983 39.67
1984 40.01
1985 40.42
1986 40.93
1987 41.51
1988 42.15
1989 42.83
1990 43.52
1991 44.23
1992 44.93
1993 45.61
1994 46.26
1995 46.86
1996 47.40
1997 47.88
1998 48.33
1999 48.75
2000 49.17
2001 49.59
2002 50.05
2003 50.55
2004 51.10
2005 51.69
2006 52.32
2007 52.96
2008 53.60
2009 54.22
2010 54.80
2011 55.33
2012 55.79
2013 56.20
2014 56.55
2015 56.86
2016 57.12
2017 57.37
2018 57.60
2019 57.85
2020 58.10

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