In this news release, life expectancy refers to period life expectancy. Period life expectancy is mainly used as a measure of mortality. Period life expectancy takes into account the age distribution and size of the population, which enables comparisons between different populations and makes it suitable as a general measure of the health status of a population.
The calculations for period life expectancy are based on the mortality rates for all ages in a given year. As such, it is not equivalent to life expectancy, since mortality rates will change throughout a person’s lifetime. Given that mortality rates tend to fall, life expectancy (or cohort life expectancy) is higher than period life expectancy.
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