A powerpoint to explain Life Expectancy. Level: Secondary school. Subjects: History, geography & social studies. What you need: A computer, a screen and a projector. The two key messages are: (1) Life expectancy is a mean and (2) When life expectancy is low, this is mostly due to a very high child mortality. To illustrate these points we compare the expected life spans of 5 newborns in Burundi with those of 5 newborns in Sweden. Instructions and background information can be found at: License You are free to use and re-distribute this material for non-commercial purposes under a creative commons licence. We ask you to credit as the source: Produced by Mattias Lindgren, the Gapminder Foundation. Version: Photo credits Models are used for the portraits, with the permission of the models / guardians of the models. The life spans in the examples are based on mortality statistics and do not represent the life spans of the individual models. Their names are made up for illustration only. The 10 Swedish portraits are by Mathias Grate. The 9 Burundian portraits are by Sylvain Liechti. The Burundian landscape are from Xavier Damman (cc) the Swedish landscape are from finbar_mad (cc) The Africa map are Wikimedia commons The hour glass picture is from an unknown source. Please let us know if you have taken that picture and want to be credited, or if we have infringed on any copyright.

… is the average lifespan a newborn can expect … is short when child deaths are common

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) 50 years Burundi 81 years Sweden

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) 50 years Burundi

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Age (years) Life expectancy (years) 50 years Burundi

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Age (years) Life expectancy (years) 50 years Burundi Look at the expected life of five newborn Burundians…

Age (years) SarahAnnJeanLizPierre …if conditions remain as in Burundi in 2007 during their whole lifetime? How long will they live…

Age (years) SarahAnnJeanLizPierre

Age (years) SarahAnnJeanLizPierre child adult old So yes, 2 of 5 get old in Burundi

Age (years) SarahAnnJeanLizPierre This is the Life Expectancy 50 years Calculate the mean… = 50

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) Burundi 50 years 81 years Sweden 31 years

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) 81 years Sweden

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) 81 years Look at the expected life of five newborn Swedes… Sweden Age (years)

Age (years) SaraAntonJanLisaPer How long will they live… …if conditions remain as in Sweden in 2007 during their whole lifetime?

Age (years) SaraAntonJanLisaPer adult 4 old

Age (years) SaraAntonJanLisaPer =81 81 years Calculate the mean…

Life expectancy (years) Sweden 81 years $ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year)

Lets compare

$ 2000 $ 200 $ Income per person (comparable dollars per year) Life expectancy (years) 81 years Sweden 50 years Burundi

Age (years) 81 50

Age (years) But dying young in Sweden is very different from dying young in Burundi So, no, all Burundians do not live 31 years shorter than Swedes To live long in Sweden is almost the same as to live long in Burundi

… is an average … is low when child- deaths are common -Most Burundians get older than 50 -Some die in childhood -It is low in Burundi not because all die a bit earlier -But because some die much younger