Life expectancy in Eritrea

Eritrea: Life expectancy was 68.62 years in 2023. ▲ Rising

Latest (2023)
68.62 years
Change on year
up 1.2%
World rank
180th
of 236 countries
All-time high
68.62 years
in 2023
All-time low
30.4 years
in 1957
Years of data
74
1950–2023

Life expectancy in Eritrea, 1950–2023

0204060195019862023

Source: Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in years.

Analysis

In 2023, life expectancy in Eritrea stood at 68.62 years. That is the highest value across all 74 years on record.

That represents a change of up 1.2% on the previous year and up 5.6% over ten years.

Over the whole period, life expectancy in Eritrea peaked at 68.62 years in 2023 and was at its lowest, 30.4 years, in 1957.

Eritrea ranks 180th of 236 countries on this measure, in the bottom quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 74 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1950s 33.92 years 30.4 years 36.97 years 10
1960s 39.04 years 37.44 years 40.79 years 10
1970s 41.53 years 39 years 43.78 years 10
1980s 43.07 years 37.17 years 48.09 years 10
1990s 52.09 years 44.51 years 56.16 years 10
2000s 60.28 years 56.29 years 63.2 years 10
2010s 65.62 years 63.67 years 67.31 years 10
2020s 67.58 years 66.94 years 68.62 years 4

Countries ranked near Eritrea

  1. 177 Botswana 69.16 years compare
  2. 178 Laos 68.96 years compare
  3. 179 Senegal 68.68 years compare
  4. 181 Bolivia 68.58 years compare
  5. 182 Mauritania 68.48 years compare
  6. 183 Gabon 68.34 years compare

See the full ranking of 236 places →

More health data for Eritrea

All data for Eritrea →

Frequently asked questions

What is life expectancy in Eritrea?
Life expectancy in Eritrea was 68.62 years in 2023, according to Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
What is the highest life expectancy recorded in Eritrea?
The highest recorded value was 68.62 years in 2023.
What is the lowest life expectancy recorded in Eritrea?
The lowest recorded value was 30.4 years in 1957.
How does Eritrea rank for life expectancy?
Eritrea ranks 180th out of 236 countries with data for 2023.
Is life expectancy rising or falling in Eritrea?
Over the last ten years it is up 5.6%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this Eritrea data come from?
The figures come from Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Life expectancy. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 74 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Life expectancy
Unit
years
Source
Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
236 places, 19,452 data points, 1543–2023
Last refreshed

Period life expectancy is the number of years the average person born in a certain year would live if they experienced the same chances of dying at each age as people did that year.