Life Expectancy at Birth in South Sudan: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

Life expectancy at birth measures how many years a newborn could expect to live, given the mortality of the time and place. Behind every statistic is a span of human experience, mapped across generations whose days were shaped by the precise conditions of their environment. In the 2020s, life expectancy at birth in South Sudan stands at 62 years, ranking #150 of 157 countries. This metric captures the heavy weight of infant loss, disease, and hardship that has defined the physical journey of human survival here.

Across three centuries, the data traces an incremental, hard-fought arc of survival. In the 1800s estimate, life expectancy sat at 27 years, moving slowly through the decades to reach 28 years in 1900, and 36 in the 1950s. The upward slope continued through the 1960s at 40, the 1970s at 44, and the 1980s at 48, before reaching 49 in the 1990s and 50 in the 2000s. By the 2010s it rose to 56, leading to projections of 63.2 in the 2030s, 64.4 in the 2040s, 65.6 in the 2050s, 66.8 in the 2060s, 68 in the 2070s, 69.2 in the 2080s, 70.4 in the 2090s, and 71.6 in the 2100s projection.

For someone born in South Sudan across these eras, the horizon of a lifetime has shifted beneath their feet, moving from a fragile beginning of 27 years in the 1800s estimate to the broader possibilities of the 2020s and beyond. Every year added to the statistical average represents countless individual mornings, labors, and breath. It is the raw arithmetic of human endurance, recorded decade by decade in the ledger of history. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born?