Who dies: share of all deaths, by age and sex

World

1978

Life expectancy: 59.5

Life expectancy at birth, 1950–2100 · click to pick a year

Year

-5 -1 1978 +1 +5

Country

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Life expectancy at birth in World was 59.5 years in 1978: 61.8 for women and 57.3 for men, a gap of 4.5 years. 47,293,143 people died; 32.7% of them were 65 or older and 31.9% 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

59.5

Women

61.8

Men

57.3

Life expectancy at 65

13.8

Infant deaths per 1,000 births

84.7

Under-5 deaths per 1,000 births

124.3

Deaths

47,293,143

Deaths per 1,000 people

11.0

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

278

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

198

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	85.57	94.52	61.8	57.3
1-4	11.41	10.84	66.2	61.8
5-9	2.96	3.01	65.2	60.5
10-14	1.67	1.91	61.2	56.3
15-19	2.08	2.52	56.6	51.9
20-24	2.48	3.30	52.2	47.5
25-29	2.69	3.46	47.8	43.2
30-34	3.07	3.81	43.4	38.9
35-39	3.64	4.78	39.1	34.6
40-44	4.54	6.49	34.7	30.4
45-49	5.82	8.98	30.5	26.3
50-54	8.12	12.99	26.3	22.4
55-59	11.53	18.60	22.3	18.8
60-64	18.25	29.00	18.5	15.3
65-69	27.24	42.68	15.0	12.3
70-74	43.18	64.76	11.8	9.7
75-79	68.46	97.32	9.0	7.4
80-84	110.54	146.57	6.7	5.6
85-89	170.94	213.24	4.9	4.2
90-94	253.76	299.44	3.6	3.2
95-99	352.44	393.90	2.7	2.5
100+	467.97	496.65	2.1	2.0

Mortality in World by year

Mortality in World, 1978

Year

Country