This report aims to describe global and regional levels and trends in life expectancy at birth and assess the contribution of various major causes of death to differences in survival between populations. The report provides a detailed analysis of the sex- and age-patterns of mortality that produce regional trends and differences in the levels of life expectancy at birth. In addition, the report contains a decomposition analysis to pinpoint the specific causes of death that are responsible for deficits in survival among populations of selected regions compared to the longest-lived populations in the world. It highlights how the "double burden" of communicable and non-communicable disease mortality is responsible for the survival disadvantages experienced by many of the populations of the world's less developed regions.