In Summary:
- Samuel Jackson, a popular Liberian intellectual, claimed in a post that Liberia has the highest life expectancy in the region.
- We fact-checked this claim by reviewing the WHO “Global Health Observatory Life Expectancy at Birth indicator.
- Our review of the evidence found that Liberia shares the same life expectancy with Ivory Coast.
On July 7, popular Liberian intellectual, Samuel Jackson, claimed in a Facebook post that the World Health Organization (WHO) data show that “we [Liberia] have the highest life expectancy in the region.”
Jackson was making a comparison with Guinea (59 years), Sierra Leone (60 years), and Côte d’Ivoire (63 years), which he also claimed have lower life expectancy rates than Liberia.
The claim
Mr. Jackson’s exact post: “Laziness is our major weakness. We posted WHO figures that most Liberians will die before they reach 65. None of you cared to compare us to Guinea, 59 years (life expectancy), Sierra Leone, 60 (life expectancy, and Côte d’Ivoire, 63 (life expectancy. We [Liberia] have the highest life expectancy in the region!”
Rating Justification
To fact-check whether the WHO life expectancy at birth indicator data show that Liberia has the highest life expectancy in comparison to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire, we conducted an online search and found that the WHO report Jackson referred to is its “Global Health Observatory Life Expectancy at Birth indicator.”
This indicator shows the average number of years a newborn is expected to live if current death rates remain the same throughout their life. It also helps compare life expectancy across countries and regions, highlighting differences in health and living conditions.
WHO defines life expectancy as the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live, if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.
The WHO updates its Global Health Observatory (GHO) data, including life expectancy information, every few years, typically every 3 or 4 years, as part of its Global Health Estimates. These estimates provide a comprehensive view of mortality trends and are used to inform global health policy and resource allocation.
According to the latest WHO Global Health Observatory Life Expectancy at Birth indicator, Liberia’s life expectancy is 63.5 years, one of the highest in the region. However, a further review of the WHO data shows that Côte d’Ivoire also has a life expectancy of 63.5 years, contradicting Mr. Jackson’s claim that Liberia alone has the highest life expectancy in the region.
Unlike Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea’s life expectancy stands at 61.3 years, followed by Sierra Leone at 61 years, not 59 and 60 years as claimed by Mr. Jackson.
Conclusion
Based on a review of the WHO “Global Health Observatory Life Expectancy at Birth indicator, we conclude that the claim made by Liberian economist Samuel Jackson, that “we [Liberia] have the highest life expectancy in the region,” is incorrect.
While Liberia has a relatively high life expectancy of 63.5 years, it is not the highest in the region. Côte d’Ivoire also has a life expectancy of 63.5 years.
Guinea stands at 61.3 years, followed by Sierra Leone at 61 years, not 59 and 60 years as claimed by Mr. Jackson.
Note that this fact check only focused on countries that are neighboring Liberia in the West African region and not the entire West African region.
