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

Statistics often measure things we cannot hold, but life expectancy at birth maps the fundamental boundary of human experience. For Taiwan, this metric reveals how many years a newborn could expect to live, given the mortality of the time and place. Behind every decimal point and projected decade lies a shifting horizon of survival, tracing a collective journey from the 1800s estimate of 29 years into the modern era where the 2020s value stands at 76 years, ranking #70 of 157 countries.

The historical arc unfolds in steady, measurable increments across three centuries of recorded existence. In 1900 it was 31 years, a stark contrast to the decades that followed as public health and living conditions slowly transformed. Through the 1810s estimate of 29.2, the 1820s estimate of 29.4, the 1830s estimate of 29.6, the 1840s estimate of 29.8, the 1850s estimate of 30, the 1860s estimate of 30.2, the 1870s estimate of 30.4, the 1880s estimate of 30.6, and the 1890s estimate of 30.8, the baseline shifted. It continued upward through the 1910s estimate of 33.8, the 1920s estimate of 36.6, the 1930s estimate of 39.4, the 1940s estimate of 42.2, the 1950s 45, the 1960s 51.67, the 1970s 58.33, the 1980s 65, the 1990s 68, the 2000s 71, and the 2010s 73.5.

What it meant to be born in Taiwan depended entirely on the century of your arrival, and looking forward, the trajectory points toward the 2030s projection 77.2, the 2040s projection 78.4, the 2050s projection 79.6, the 2060s projection 80.8, the 2070s projection 82, the 2080s projection 83.2, the 2090s projection 84.4, and the 2100s projection 85.6. These figures, compiled by MYRIAD from sources including the UN WPP, World Bank, and Gapminder, represent factual milestones of human survival. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born? →