Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

Indicator id: life_expectancy · Unit: years · Coverage: 1960-2023

Number of years a newborn would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

Sources

• World Bank (preferred) -- dataset WDI, code SP.DYN.LE00.IN (https://data.worldbank.org)
• Our World in Data -- dataset life-expectancy, code life_expectancy_0 (https://ourworldindata.org)

Reconciliation note: Both trace to the UN World Population Prospects life table; matched World Bank to the third decimal for every recent Nepal year checked (e.g. 70.354 vs 70.3537 in 2023). OWID's series runs back to 1950 for Nepal, well before this indicator's documented coverage_years start (1960) -- those earlier points are legitimate UN WPP back-estimates, not a data error.

Caveats

Modelled estimate; sharp single-year dips usually reflect a real shock (earthquake, conflict, pandemic) rather than a data error.

Taxonomy

SDG: SDG 3.1 -- Reduce the global maternal mortality ratio, SDG 3.2 -- End preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5
Topic: Health
Themes: health

Also known as

"life expectancy", "how long do people live", "average lifespan"

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