West Bank and Gaza - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in West Bank and Gaza was 74.21 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 30 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 74.21 in 2020 and a minimum value of 68.05 in 1990.

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
1990 68.05
1991 68.43
1992 68.80
1993 69.14
1994 69.46
1995 69.76
1996 70.04
1997 70.31
1998 70.56
1999 70.80
2000 71.02
2001 71.24
2002 71.45
2003 71.65
2004 71.84
2005 72.03
2006 72.20
2007 72.37
2008 72.52
2009 72.66
2010 72.79
2011 72.92
2012 73.04
2013 73.17
2014 73.30
2015 73.44
2016 73.59
2017 73.74
2018 73.90
2019 74.05
2020 74.21

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