LifePath

Life in South Sudan

Sub-Saharan Africa · low-income · capital Juba

World Bank country code SSD · ISO SS · Data sources

Live a life in the South Sudan

Start from this country's own statistics — its mortality curve, its income level, its school system — and play the years out: what happens if you leave school at fifteen, or take the job that is offered, or move to the capital.

Start a life in South Sudan

The statistics behind the simulation

Each figure shows the year it was observed. A missing row means the World Bank does not report that indicator for South Sudan — not that the value is zero.

IndicatorValueYear
Life expectancy at birth
The average number of years a newborn would live if the year's mortality rates held for their whole life.
57.7 years2024
Infant mortality
Babies who die before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births.
71.9 per 1,0002024
Under-5 mortality
Children who die before their fifth birthday, per 1,000 live births.
96.7 per 1,0002024
Fertility rate
The average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime.
3.792024
Government health spending
Public spending on health as a share of total output.
11.6%2023
Urban population
The share of people living in urban areas.
21.4%2024
Youth unemployment
The share of the labour force aged 15–24 that is without work and looking for it.
12.4%2023
Population
Total population.
11,943,4082024
Birth rate
Crude birth rate: births per 1,000 population per year.
29.22024
Secondary school enrolment
Total enrolment in secondary school, regardless of age, as a percentage of the official age group.
122.1%2024
Female labour force participation
The share of women aged 15 and over in work or actively looking for work.
70.4%2023
Maternal mortality
Deaths during pregnancy and childbirth per 100,000 live births.
692 per 100,0002023

What these numbers mean

A newborn in the South Sudan can expect to live 57.7 years, far below the dataset median of 74.7 years. Infant mortality runs at 71.9 deaths per 1,000 live births (2024), so roughly 72 in every thousand babies do not reach their first birthday. The fertility rate is 3.79 births per woman (2024) — above the replacement level, so a family in the simulation is likely to have several children. 21.4% of people live in urban areas (2024), so most lives here begin in a village or a small town, and moving is one of the larger decisions available.

Other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Where the South Sudan sits within Sub-Saharan Africa

Of the 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that report life expectancy, the South Sudan sits below the regional median, at 57.7 years against a regional median of 64.3. 44 countries report a higher figure and 3 report a lower one.

IndicatorSouth SudanSub-Saharan Africa medianSub-Saharan Africa range
Life expectancy57.764.354.6 – 76.3
Infant mortality71.937.29.2 – 71.9
Fertility rate3.83.91.4 – 6.0
Urban population21.4%44.4%17.3% – 91.9%

Ranges cover every country in the region that reports the indicator, in the year each country last reported it. Medians are unweighted, so a large country and a small one count the same.

Where the South Sudan shows up in the topics

These pages put South Sudan's figures next to the other 216 countries, for the indicators that shape the decisions in the simulation.

About these figures

The statistics above are national averages from the World Bank Open Data, retrieved 2026-11-01 and released under World Bank data is released under CC BY 4.0. National averages do not describe any individual life, and this page does not rank South Sudan against other countries. Life expectancy reflects a country's mortality conditions as a whole, which include healthcare access, income distribution, nutrition, sanitation and public safety — the simulation uses it as a risk curve, not as a measure of the people who live there.

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