Life expectancy since 1820

Health status is a key dimension of well-being. This chapter describes long-term trends in life expectancy at birth by combining a wide variety of international databases, while maintaining some coherence in the methods used. In addition, the chapter presents data on the infant mortality rate. It shows that, on a global scale, life expectancy at first diverged in the late 19th and early 20th century, reflecting higher life expectancy in Western Europe and the Western Offshoots. From the second half of the 20th century onwards, life expectancy improved in other parts of the world as well (with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa), leading to a global convergence in life expectancy. Within the world’s regions, levels of life expectancy appear to have started diverging once more during the last three decades.