Re: Life Expectancy

From: Kevin Rose <vladt_at_flowbee.interaccess.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 22:11:25 -0600 (CST)

> >Don't take the figure of average life expectancy = 40 years too
> >seriously.
> Exactly right. If you manage to survive past your first five
> years of life. A person who'd managed to reach 40 years of age might
> have had less teeth than a modern European, but he wouldn't have been
> on his deathbed. Even the ancient Greeks and Hebrews knew that a fair
> allottment of life was around 70 years.

Not completly true. Generally, the point is valid that the deaths in childhood distort the statistics a lot, but it is not quite this simple. Disease and accidents killed a lot of adults also.  

Between 1900 and 1990, average remaining life expectancy in the US at birth increased by 26 years. For people aged 20 it increased by 13 years. At age 65 it increased by 5 years, and at age 85 it increased by one year.

In 1900 half of 20 year olds lived to age 65. In 1990 80 percent did. 25% of people born in 1900 died before the age of 20, compared to 2% in 1990.

As the information in WOG says that you don't get the infant mortality of historical societies, I'm not certain what the point of this is. But have it anyway.

Kevin

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End of Glorantha Digest V1 #47

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