Life expectancy at birth in Gambia was 43.6 years in 1978: 44.6 for women and 42.6 for men, a gap of 2.0 years. 14,337 people died; 13.7% of them were 65 or older and 51.6% children under five. The most common age at death was 0-4. Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects 2024.

Key indicators, 1978

Life expectancy at birth

43.6

Women

44.6

Men

42.6

Life expectancy at 65

11.4

Infant deaths per 1,000 births

112.9

Under-5 deaths per 1,000 births

243.9

Deaths

14,337

Deaths per 1,000 people

21.5

Men dying between 15 and 60 (per 1,000)

423

Women dying between 15 and 60 (per 1,000)

390

Life expectancy is a period measure: how long a newborn would live if 1978's death rates at each age stayed the same for their whole life.

Death rate by age, 1978

Deaths per 1,000 people per year in each age group. Logarithmic scale: each gridline is ten times the one below. Hover for exact values.

WomenMen

Show the life table data

Age	Death rate, women (‰)	Death rate, men (‰)	Years left, women	Years left, men
0	112.57	131.65	44.6	42.6
1-4	39.07	42.28	48.8	47.4
5-9	9.86	9.09	52.6	51.7
10-14	5.29	4.67	50.1	49.0
15-19	5.67	5.54	46.4	45.1
20-24	6.59	7.82	42.7	41.3
25-29	7.69	8.30	39.0	37.9
30-34	8.87	8.89	35.5	34.4
35-39	10.13	10.02	32.0	30.8
40-44	11.29	12.08	28.5	27.3
45-49	12.36	14.49	25.0	23.8
50-54	15.37	18.54	21.4	20.4
55-59	20.74	24.17	17.9	17.1
60-64	30.37	34.19	14.6	14.0
65-69	46.28	49.92	11.6	11.1
70-74	72.12	76.60	9.0	8.6
75-79	109.47	116.43	6.8	6.5
80-84	167.60	178.30	5.0	4.7
85-89	243.08	267.44	3.7	3.4
90-94	354.31	400.14	2.7	2.4
95-99	472.30	539.07	2.1	1.8
100+	602.48	678.89	1.7	1.5

Mortality in Gambia by year

Mortality in Gambia, 1978

Year

Country