Trends in longevity in Africa countries: examining patterns of life expectancies for the period 1960-2015

William Muhwava, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Gideon Rutaremwa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

The paper will show trends in the differences in life expectancy and whether these have been increasing over time. This paper is based on the notion that all societies continue to be divided along the ‘fault line’ of gender, which considerably affects the survival and wellness of both men and women. Life expectancy at birth will form the unit of analyses. Data on life expectancies by sex for African countries are available from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. For analysis, measures of inequality are used. The purpose of the analysis is to quantify the magnitude of health inequalities using summary indices like life expectancy at birth. These summary indices express the magnitude of the health differences between different sections of the population. One of the main advantages of such a summary index is that it facilitates spatial and temporal comparisons.