World Bank Reveals Life Expectancy Rates For Today's Infants

Children born in the UK can expect to live to 81, an average of 38 years more than those born in Sierra Leone.

Every January much attention is given to the first UK-born babies of the year. Britons who become parents in 2016 can be reassured that, statistically speaking, their newborns’ prospects are promising.

Data collected by the World Bank indicates that the life expectancy of UK children now stands at 81 years, while more than eight in 10 boys and more than nine in 10 girls born in the UK today will reach their 65th birthday.

Primary school enrolment rates are at 100% and immunisation programmes cover more than 90% of the under-two population. Just four in 1,000 children born will die before they reach the age of five, the lowest ever level for this particular measure.

Elsewhere, however, the prospects of children born today varies hugely depending on where they are born and grow up.

For example, while the average life expectancy for a child born in Hong Kong stands at almost 84 years – the highest in the world – the figure falls to just 46 years for a baby born in Sierra Leone. It is one of five countries – along with Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where the average life expectancy stands at below 50 years.

Fewer than a quarter of babies born in Lesotho will reach their 65th birthday according to United Nations predictions, while in Hong Kong 95% of girls and 89% of boys will do so.

Life expectancy rate at birth, for some countries shown below:

Hong Kong..................................................84

Japan..........................................................83

Spain..........................................................82

Italy............................................................82

Australia.....................................................82

UK.............................................................81

US.............................................................79

Democratic Republic of Congo.....................46

Lesotho......................................................47

Sierra Leone...............................................50

Botswana...................................................49

Swaziland...................................................49

The highest mortality rate among under-fives is in Angola, at 157 deaths per 1,000 live births, while the comparable rate in the Central African Republic, Somalia and Chad is between 130 and 139 deaths per 1,000 children born. Other countries where the mortality rates among under-fives stands at more than 100 per 1,000 live births are Nigeria, Mali and Sierra Leone.

This compares with two deaths per 1,000 in Luxembourg, Iceland and Finland.