- The National Population Commission says the current overall life expectancy of Nigeria stands at 55.2 years
- The disclosure was made in New York by the acting chairman of the commission, Alhaji Hassan Bashir
- Life expectancy refers to the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply
The National Population Commission (NPC) has said that the current overall life expectancy of Nigeria stands at 55.2 years.
The acting chairman of NPC, Alhaji Hassan Bashir, stated this in New York while delivering Nigeria’s statement at the 52nd Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development.
According to the World Health Organisation, life expectancy refers to the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply, News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Legit.ng gathers that the population chief said Nigerians in the age bracket of “60 years and over currently represents less than five per cent of the entire population, while overall life expectancy is 55.2 years”.
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Bashir added: “As you may be aware, Nigeria estimated population is currently at over 198 million with an annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent.
“The total Fertility Rate remains at 5.5 per woman; 63 per cent of the entire population is under the age of 25; 42 per cent is under the age of 15 years.
“Fifty per cent of the female population is in the reproductive years, while 54.8 per cent of the population constitutes the working age."
According to him, Nigeria recently concluded the field work of its national demography and health survey in 2018 and while it awaits the outcome of that survey, early and child marriage still persists.
He said data available indicated that unintended and unwanted pregnancies were common as 23 per cent of the adolescent girl age 15 to 19 years have commenced reproduction.
Bashir said the situation had put women, especially young girls, at risk of maternal death which stands at 576 deaths per 100,000 live births.
He added that 61% of women of reproductive age who had live births within this period received antenatal care from skilled providers.
Bashir, however, said that only 36 per cent of them had their deliveries in health facilities and 38 percent of the deliveries were attended to by skilled birth assistants.
He explained that the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) had been conducted regularly with plans to conduct a census during the 2020 round of census.
Bashir, however, bemoaned the major challenge of unavailability of timely information and robust disaggregated data for tracking progress aimed at achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He added: “Some of our critical concerns include addressing the needs of over 66 million adolescents and young people, aged 10 to 24 years (half of whom are girls) to gain access to comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health information and age appropriate services.
“There is also the need to address the contraceptive needs of 14 million internally displaced persons affected by increasing insecurity, as well as the needs of over 13.2 million out-of-school children including school-drop-outs due to unintended pregnancies.”
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Legit.ng previously reported that over 91 million Nigerians now live in extreme poverty and at least three million of them slipped into extreme poverty between November 2018 and February 2019.
This was contained in World Poverty Clock, created by Vienna-based World Data Lab, The Cable reports.
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