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Global Health Observatory
Table
Indicator name:
Life expectancy
Short name:
Life expectancy
Data type:
Count
Topic:
Mortality and burden of disease
Rationale:
Life expectancy reflects the overall mortality level of a population. It summarizes the mortality pattern that prevails at the time in the remaining years of life at a certain age.
Definition:
The average number of years that a person could expect to live, if he or she were to pass through the remaining years of life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.
At birth: taking into account years lived throughout the entire life course.
At age 60: taking into account years lived at age 60 years and above.
Disaggregation:
Sex
Method of measurement
Life expectancy at a specific age is derived from life tables and is based on sex- and age-specific death rates.
Method of estimation:
Final estimates of age-sex-specific mortality rates for years 1990-2021 were used to compute abridged life tables for 183 WHO Member States with population of 90,000 or greater in 2021. Life expectancies at birth are reported in World Health Statistics 2024 and full life tables are available in the WHO Global Health Observatory WHO applies standard methods to the analysis of Member State data to ensure comparability of estimates across countries. This will inevitably result in differences for some Member States with official estimates for quantities such as life expectancy, where a variety of different projection methods and other methods are used. These WHO estimates of mortality and life expectancies should not be regarded as the nationally endorsed statistics of Member States, which may have been derived using alternative methodologies and assumptions.
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
The numbers of deaths estimated from life table and population by age groups are aggregated by relevant region in order to compute regional life tables.
Other possible data sources:
Household surveys
Population census
Preferred data sources:
Civil registration with complete coverage
Unit of Measure:
Years
Expected frequency of data dissemination:
Biennial (Two years)
Expected frequency of data collection:
Biennial (Two years)
Comments:
The lack of complete and reliable mortality data, especially for low income countries and particularly on mortality among adults and the elderly, necessitates the application of modelling (based on data from other populations) to estimate life expectancy. This may lead to generally minor differences compared with official life tables prepared by Member States.
Contact person email:
gho_info@who.int
Name:
Global Health Observatory
Data Type Representation:
Float
IMRID:
2977
Links:
UN World Population Prospects
WHO Mortality Database
WHO methods and data sources for life tables 1990-2019
Modified Logit Life Table System: Principles, Empirical Validation and Application (Murray et al, 2003)
Indicator Metadata Registry List
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