06 March 2015

Life expectancy at birth for Rwandan women to increase by 3.5 years in 2020

As one of many results of the continuous development of Rwanda, especially the health system, women will live much longer in the coming years.

According to estimations based on the 2012 Population and Housing Census of Rwanda, the life expectancy at birth for women in Rwandawill increase by 3.5 years, from 66.2 in 2012 to 69.7 years in 2020 while for men it will increase by 3.2 years from 62.6to 65.8 years forthe same period.

Estimates show that the total number of person aged 60 years and above, will be 707,058 in 2020 with 410,682 women (in 2012, the number of persons aged 60 years and above was 511,738 and 304,499 were women).

This growth of the life expectancy at birth and the resulting number of elderly persons in Rwanda reflects the development of Rwanda in various domains, especially the health system. This means that if Rwanda will continuously invest in health system, education and various other components of economic growth like agriculture etc, Rwandans will, without any doubt, go beyond the estimations of life expectancy at birth in 2020, which is 67.8 years.

By: Jean Claude Nyirimanzi


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