Kenya - Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, female (years) in Kenya was 69.35 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 69.35 in 2020 and a minimum value of 48.66 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 48.66
1961 49.37
1962 50.06
1963 50.72
1964 51.33
1965 51.90
1966 52.44
1967 52.97
1968 53.51
1969 54.05
1970 54.60
1971 55.15
1972 55.69
1973 56.22
1974 56.72
1975 57.22
1976 57.72
1977 58.22
1978 58.73
1979 59.23
1980 59.70
1981 60.14
1982 60.52
1983 60.81
1984 61.01
1985 61.11
1986 61.08
1987 60.94
1988 60.69
1989 60.34
1990 59.88
1991 59.30
1992 58.61
1993 57.83
1994 57.01
1995 56.19
1996 55.39
1997 54.65
1998 54.02
1999 53.56
2000 53.35
2001 53.43
2002 53.84
2003 54.54
2004 55.50
2005 56.67
2006 57.97
2007 59.32
2008 60.62
2009 61.84
2010 62.94
2011 63.92
2012 64.82
2013 65.65
2014 66.42
2015 67.11
2016 67.72
2017 68.24
2018 68.68
2019 69.05
2020 69.35

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