Life expectancy in Malawi, by age
On average, a newborn in Malawi can expect to live 64.3 years: 67.2 for girls and 61.3 for boys (World Health Organization, 2023). That's 9.0 years less than the world average of 73.3, and ranks 165th of 185 countries in the WHO's tables.
Average years left at each age
Each row is the average number of further years lived by people who reach that age, using the mortality rates of 2023. It rises past the at-birth figure for older ages because those people have already survived the earlier years.
| Age | Women | Men | Everyone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 67.2 | 61.3 | 64.3 |
| 1 | 68.5 | 63.0 | 65.8 |
| 5 | 65.2 | 59.8 | 62.6 |
| 10 | 60.6 | 55.2 | 57.9 |
| 15 | 55.8 | 50.5 | 53.2 |
| 20 | 51.2 | 46.0 | 48.6 |
| 25 | 46.6 | 41.6 | 44.2 |
| 30 | 42.1 | 37.3 | 39.8 |
| 35 | 37.6 | 33.1 | 35.4 |
| 40 | 33.2 | 29.1 | 31.2 |
| 45 | 29.0 | 25.2 | 27.1 |
| 50 | 24.9 | 21.4 | 23.3 |
| 55 | 21.1 | 18.0 | 19.7 |
| 60 | 17.4 | 14.8 | 16.2 |
| 65 | 14.0 | 11.9 | 13.0 |
| 70 | 10.9 | 9.3 | 10.2 |
| 75 | 8.2 | 7.1 | 7.8 |
| 80 | 5.7 | 5.0 | 5.4 |
| 85+ | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.4 |
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory, life tables (2023), licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Averages describe whole populations, not any one person; health, habits, income and luck matter far more.
What these numbers mean
A period life table is a snapshot: it applies one year's death rates to every age. If health keeps improving, people born today will likely live longer than these figures. Treat them as a rough guide to the time ahead, not a forecast.