8.5 Life expectancy

One of the most used key ratios describing mortality is the so-called life expectancy, also known as expectation of life. Life expectancy is a statistical ratio expressing the remaining lifetime of living persons of a given age. The lifetime of newborn children, i.e. those aged 0 is the most commonly used ratio.

Similarly as the infant mortality rate, life expectancy is one of the main key ratios describing the living standard of countries. The longer people live, the more advanced is the standard of health care in that country. At the same time, economic and social living conditions are better among those "living long".

Life expectancy is calculated (see Example 1) by utilising the probability of death rates. Thus it indicates the level of mortality precisely in the period from which it is calculated. On the other hand, life expectancy can be interpreted as a "prediction" of the future level of mortality. In 2000, the life expectancy of a boy born in Finland was 74.1 and of a girl 81.1 years. If the mortality of different age people lowers in the future, life expectancy may well be longer than calculated at the moment.

In 2000, people's lifetime was shortest in Africa, where in a few countries the lifetime of both men and women was under 40 years. In industrialised countries life expectancies are generally close to the level of Finland, though slightly longer in many countries. Japanese men (77.6 years) and women (84.1 years) live the longest of those countries with a population of at least half a million. In some lilliput nations, though, people live even longer. You can examine the life expectancies of countries in recent years at: www.tilastokeskus.fi/tk/tp/maailmanumeroina/24_terveys_ja_ravinto.xls

Examples