Liberia’s Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor has claimed that life expectancy OF Liberians has increased under the current government while also asserting that poverty has reduced under the Weah-led administration.
The Vice President on August 21, 2022 in a two-hour special interview broadcast on many radio stations and streamed on Facebook was keen on outlining the successes of the Weah administration.
At around 4:56 minute of the nearly 50-minutes video, the Vice President claimed that Life expectancy under this administration rose to 64 years.
Claim 1: Life Expectancy under this administration rose to 64 years.
Verdict: Mostly Correct
According to the World Health Organization, life expectancy is “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.”
Although she did not cite any source as her reliance for making the claim, our research found many relevant statistics on the state of Liberia’s healthcare system.
A World Bank graph shows that life expectancy at birth in Liberia since 2017 to current has been at 61 years despite some up and downward movements in the graph.
Liberia’s data on the website of the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also shows that life expectancy at birth in Liberia is at 61 years.
Liberia dashboard on the website of the United Nation Population Fund also shows that Life expectancy at birth for male in 2023 is 61 years while for female is 63 years.
And the World Health Organization data shows that life expectancy at birth in Liberia has improved by 10.3 years from 53.8 years in 2000 to 64.1 years in 2019.
Statistics from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also shows that life expectancy at birth in Liberia for female is 66 years while for male is at 63 years.
A press release issued by the United Nations Development Programme on its 2021/2022 Human Development Report stated that life expectancy at birth in Liberia between 2000 to 2019 increased by 12.4 years from 51.7 years to 64.1 years.
The claim by the Vice President that Life expectancy under their administration rose to 64 years is mostly correct based on data available to various international organizations.
Claim 2: World Poverty Lab shows that the current administration has “reduced poverty by 8% from the last number”.
Verdict: Incorrect
Vice President Taylor, in the same interview, also claimed that data from the World Poverty Lab shows that the current administration has “reduced poverty by 8% from the last number”.
Our research found the World Data Lab a data enterprise that provides estimates of countries spending and demography. This website hosts the World Poverty Clock, a platform that provides poverty estimates and monitors country’s progress against ending extreme poverty.
Liberia statistics on the World Poverty Clock map shows that currently 33% or a little over 1.8 million people in Liberia live in extreme poverty. The clock data shows that in 2022, nearly 1.9 million people or 35% of Liberia’s population were living in extreme poverty.
However, when the current government came to power in 2018, data from the clock shows that 32% or about 1.5 million Liberians were living in extreme poverty.
Extreme poverty dropped by 2% in 2022, but it has increased from where the current administration met it at 32% in 2018 to 33% in 2023.
According to the World Bank, the new international poverty line is set at $2.15 – this means anyone living on less than $2.15 per day is considered to be living in extreme poverty.
Therefore, the second claim by the Vice President that data from the “World Poverty Lab” shows that the current administration has reduced poverty by 8% is incorrect.
Data from the World Poverty Clock shows that extreme poverty under the Weah administration dropped by 2% from 2022 but increased by 1% from where the administration met it in 2018.
Conclusion
Based on the facts explained above, the first claimed made by Vice President Taylor that life expectancy under the Weah administration rose to 64 years is mostly correct, based on data from WHO.
Meanwhile, we conclude that the second claim that the current administration has reduced poverty by 8% is incorrect. Data from the World Poverty Clock shows that the number of Liberians living in extreme poverty under the Weah administration has increased from about 1.5 million in 2018 to 1.8 million in 2023.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.
