GBD 2019: Global Age-Sex-Specific Fertility, Mortality, Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE), and Population Estimates in 204 Countries and Territories, 1950-2019

This article from The Lancet summarizes the updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators related to fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. The global population increased by more than 25% between 2000 and 2019, from 6.2 billion to 7.7 billion. In recent decades, the world has experienced a declining fertility rate and an increasing life expectancy. The authors found that the global total fertility rate (TFR) decreased from 2.72 in 2000 to 2.31 in 2019. Of the 204 countries followed in the study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2.1—the approximation of replacement fertility. Global life expectancy increased from 67.2 years in 2000 to 73.5 years in 2019. While the total number of global deaths increased from 50.7 million in 2000 to 56.5 million in 2019, under-5 deaths drastically declined over the same period. Healthy life expectancy (HALE), which takes into account mortality and nonfatal outcomes, increased between 2000 and 2019 in 202 of the 204 countries followed. The article notes that tracking demographic changes and the emergence of new patterns is critical for global health monitoring.

Led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, GBD is a global effort with researchers from over 150 countries and territories. IHME and other partnering organizations have developed numerous resources to disseminate and visualize the findings of the GBD studies, data visualizations and interactives, country profiles, policy reports, research articles, infographics, and the GBD Results Tool, which allows users to search GBD data.