Editing Life expectancy (section)

===Variation over time===
{{further|Longevity|List of countries by past life expectancy}}
The following information is derived from the 1961 ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' and other sources, some with questionable accuracy. Unless otherwise stated, it represents estimates of the life expectancies of the [[world population]] as a whole. In many instances, life expectancy varied considerably according to class and gender.

Life expectancy at birth takes account of [[infant mortality]] and [[child mortality]] but not prenatal mortality.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none; font-size:95%"
|-
! Era !! Life expectancy at birth in years !! Notes
|-
|[[Paleolithic]]||style="text-align:center;"|22–33<ref name="Kotre1997" />||With modern hunter-gatherer populations' estimated average life expectancy at birth of 33 years, life expectancy for the 60% reaching age 15 averages 39 remaining years.<ref name=kaplanetal2000>{{cite journal|year=2000|vauthors=Kaplan H, Hill K, Lancaster J, Hurtado AM|title=A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence and Longevity|journal=Evolutionary Anthropology|volume=9|issue=4|pages=156–185|doi=10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7|s2cid=2363289|url=http://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf|access-date=12 September 2010}}</ref>
|-
|[[Neolithic]]||style="text-align:center;"|20<ref name=Galor&Moav2007>{{cite web|year=2007|vauthors=Galor O, Moav O|url=http://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/sites/brown.edu.academics.economics/files/uploads/2007-14_paper.pdf|title=The Neolithic Revolution and Contemporary Variations in Life Expectancy|publisher=[[Brown University]] Working Paper|access-date=12 September 2010}}</ref>–33<ref name=Lawrence1984>{{citation|year=1984|vauthors=Angel JL|title=Health as a crucial factor in the changes from hunting to developed farming in the eastern Mediterranean|journal=Proceedings of Meeting on Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture|pages=51–73}}</ref>||Based on Early Neolithic data, life expectancy at age 15 would be 28–33 years.<ref name="Angel_1969">{{cite journal|vauthors=Angel JL|title=The bases of paleodemography|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=30|issue=3|pages=427–437|date=May 1969|pmid=5791021|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330300314}}</ref>
|-
|[[Bronze Age]] and [[Iron Age]]<ref name="sticerd.lse.ac.uk">{{cite web|year=2005|vauthors=Galor O, Moav O|url=http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/dg09102006.pdf|title=Natural Selection and the Evolution of Life Expectancy|publisher=[[Brown University]] Working Paper|access-date=4 November 2010}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|26||Based on Early and Middle Bronze Age data, life expectancy at age 15 would be 28–36 years.<ref name="Angel_1969"/>
|-
|[[Classical Greece]]<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=40752487|title=Economic Growth in Ancient Greece|vauthors=Morris I|journal=Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics|year=2004|volume=160|issue=4|pages=709–742|doi=10.1628/0932456042776050}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|25<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Hansen MH|title=The shotgun method: the demography of the ancient Greek city-state culture.|publisher=University of Missouri Press|date=2006|page=55|isbn=978-0-8262-6548-7}}</ref>–28<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/393100/mortality|title=Mortality|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=4 November 2010}}</ref>||Based on Athens Agora and Corinth data, life expectancy at age 15 would be 37–41 years.<ref name="Angel_1969"/> Most Greeks and Romans died young. About half of all children died before adolescence. Those who survived to the age of 30 had a reasonable chance of reaching 50 or 60. The truly elderly, however, were rare. Because so many died in childhood, life expectancy at birth was probably between 20 and 30 years.<ref name="Ryan2021">{{cite book|vauthors=Ryan G|title=Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans|date=2021-09-01|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-63388-703-9|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFkzEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44}}</ref>
|-
|[[Ancient Rome]]||style="text-align:center;"|20–33
<ref name="Boatwright2021">
{{cite book|vauthors=Boatwright MT|title=Imperial Women of Rome: Power, Gender, Context|date=2021|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-045589-7|page=87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W78lEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA87}}
</ref><ref>
* {{cite book|vauthors=Scheidel W|title=Debating Roman Demography|date=2017|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-35109-7|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgD1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|quote=25–30}}
* {{cite book|vauthors=Flower HI|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-99238-1|page=105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MzH6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105}}
* {{cite journal|vauthors=Scheidel W|author1-link=Walter Scheidel|title=Growing up fatherless in antiquity: the demographic background|journal=Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics|date=2006|page=2|url=https://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/060601.pdf}}
* {{cite book|vauthors=Wolf AP|title=Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo: The State of Knowledge at the Turn of the Century|date=2005|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5141-4|page=97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OW1nuQxcIQgC&pg=PA97}}
</ref><ref name="Saller1997"/><ref name="Ryan2021"/><ref name="Kotre1997"/><ref name="Carrieri2005">
{{cite journal|vauthors=Carrieri MP, Serraino D|title=Longevity of popes and artists between the 13th and the 19th century|journal=International Journal of Epidemiology|volume=34|issue=6|pages=1435–1436|date=December 2005|pmid=16260451|doi=10.1093/ije/dyi211|doi-access=free}}
</ref>
||Data is lacking, but computer models provide the estimate. If a person survived to age 20, they could expect to live around 30 years more. Life expectancy was probably slightly longer for women than men.<ref name=Frier2008>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Ancient History XI: The High Empire, A.D. 70–192|vauthors=Frier B|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-139-05439-3|pages=788–789|chapter=Chapter 27: Demographics}}</ref>
Life expectancy at age 1 reached 34–41 remaining years for the 67<ref name="Boatwright2021"/>–75% surviving the first year. For the 55-65% surviving to age 5, remaining life expectancy reached around 40–45,<ref name="Saller1997"/> while the ~50% reaching age 10 could expect another 40 years of life.<ref name="Boatwright2021"/> Average remaining years fell to 33–39 at age 15; ~20 at age 40;<ref name="Boatwright2021"/> 14–18 at age 50; ~10–12 at age 60; and ~6–7 at age 70.<ref name="Saller1997">{{cite book|vauthors=Saller RP|title=Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman Family|date=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59978-8|pages=22–25|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VbZEvtcGbMC&pg=PA23}}</ref><ref name=Frier2008/>
|-
| Wang clan of China, 1st century AD – 1749|| style="text-align:center;" |35|| Life expectancy at age 1 reached 47 years for the 72% surviving the first year.<ref name="Maher2021"/><ref name="Bagchi2008">{{cite book|vauthors=Bagchi AK|title=Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital|date=2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4617-0515-4|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHsHEoYh3V0C&pg=PA138}}</ref>
|-
|[[Early Middle Ages]] (Europe, from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century)|| style="text-align:center;" |30–35|| A Gaulish boy surviving to age 20 might expect to live 25 more years, while a woman at age 20 could normally expect about 17 more years. Anyone who survived until 40 had a good chance of another 15 to 20 years.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Bitel LM|title=Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400–1100|date=2002-10-24|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59773-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRudk_NcA7cC&pg=PA25}}</ref>
|-
|[[Mesoamerica|Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica]]|| style="text-align:center;" |20–40||Expectation of life at birth 13–36 years for various Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most of the results lying in the range 24–32 years.<ref>{{cite web|vauthors=McCaa R|url=https://users.pop.umn.edu/~rmccaa/mxpoprev/cambridg3.htm|title=The Peopling of Mexico from Origins to Revolution}}</ref> Aztec life expectancy 41.2 years for men and 42.1 for women.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Mc Krause S|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwCqDwAAQBAJ|title=Life in the Aztec Empire|publisher=Brainy Bookstore Mckrause}}</ref>
|-
|[[England in the Middle Ages|Late medieval English peerage]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide12/part06.html|title=Time traveller's guide to Medieval Britain|publisher=Channel4.com|access-date=4 November 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/241864.stm|title=A millennium of health improvement|publisher=BBC News|date=27 December 1998|access-date=4 November 2010}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|30–33<ref name="Carrieri2005"/>|| Around a third of infants died in their first year.<ref name="Kotre1997"/> Life expectancy at age 10 reached 32.2 remaining years, and for those who survived to 25, the remaining life expectancy was 23.3 years. Such estimates reflected the life expectancy of adult males from the higher ranks of English society in the Middle Ages, and were similar to that computed for monks of the Christ Church in Canterbury during the 15th century.<ref name="Carrieri2005"/> At age 21, life expectancy of an aristocrat was an additional 43 years.<ref name="Expectations of Life">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DLK7zLxYMC&pg=PA8|title=Expectations of Life|vauthors=Lancaster HO|page=8|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|date=1990|isbn=978-0-387-97105-6}}</ref>
|-
|[[Early modern Britain]] (16th – 18th century)<ref name="sticerd.lse.ac.uk"/> || style="text-align:center;" |33–40||18th-century male life expectancy at birth was 34 years.<ref name="pomeranz">{{citation|vauthors=Pomeranz K|title=The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy|page=37|year=2000|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-0-691-09010-8|author-link=Kenneth Pomeranz}}</ref> Female expectation of remaining years at age 15 rose from ~33 years around the 15th-16th centuries to ~42 in the 18th century.<ref name=Griffin2008>{{cite journal|vauthors=Griffin JP|title=Changing life expectancy throughout history|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=101|issue=12|pages=577|date=December 2008|pmid=19092024|pmc=2625386|doi=10.1258/jrsm.2008.08k037}} Note: Author is clearly using the term "life expectancy" to mean total years, as is evident from the fact that a life expectancy of 79.2 is given for a 15 year old girl in 1989.</ref>
|-
|18th-century [[England]]<ref name="OurWorldInData"/><ref name="Kotre1997">{{cite book|vauthors=Kotre JN, Hall E|title=Seasons of Life: The Dramatic Journey from Birth to Death|date=1997|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-08512-5|pages=47–49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7hiKxl9jZ4C&pg=PA47}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|25–40|| For most of the century it ranged from 35 to 40; but in the 1720s it dipped as low as 25.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/> During the second half of the century it averaged 37,<ref name="Li2021"/> while for the elite it passed 40 and approached 50.<ref name="Maher2021">{{cite book|vauthors=Maher G|title=The Imperial Roman Economy|date=2021|publisher=Kilnamanagh|isbn=978-1-9996262-2-8|pages=123, 137, 123–151|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iqAlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123}}</ref>
|-
|Pre-Champlain [[Canadian Maritimes]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Voices and Visions: A Story of Canada|vauthors=Francis D|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-542169-9|location=Canada|pages=21}}</ref>
|style="text-align:center;"|60
|[[Samuel de Champlain]] wrote that in his visits to [[Mi'kmaq]] and Huron communities, he met people over 100 years old. [[Daniel N. Paul|Daniel Paul]] attributes the incredible lifespan in the region to low stress and a healthy diet of lean meats, diverse vegetables, and legumes.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Paul DN|author-link=Daniel N. Paul|title=We Were Not the Savages: A Micmac Perspective on the Collision of European and Aboriginal Civilizations|url=https://archive.org/details/wewerenotsavages0000paul_t1q7|url-access=registration|edition=1st|year=1993|publisher=Nimbus|isbn=978-1-55109-056-6}}</ref>
|-
|18th-century [[Prussia]]<ref name=pomeranz/>||style="text-align:center;"|24.7||For males.<ref name=pomeranz/>
|-
|18th-century [[France]]<ref name=pomeranz/>||style="text-align:center;"|27.5–30||For males:<ref name=pomeranz/> 24.8 years in 1740–1749, 27.9 years in 1750–1759, 33.9 years in 1800–1809.<ref name="Bagchi2008"/>
|-
|18th-century American colonies<ref name="Kotre1997"/>||style="text-align:center;"|28||Massachusetts colonists who reached the age of 50 could expect to live until 71, and those who were still alive at 60 could expect to reach 75.
|-
|Beginning of the 19th century<ref name="OurWorldInData">{{cite journal|author1=Roser M|author1-link=Max Roser|author2=Ortiz-Ospina E|author3=Ritchie H|author3-link=Hannah Ritchie|title=Life Expectancy|url=https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy#how-did-life-expectancy-change-over-time|journal=Our World in Data|location=How did life expectancy change over time?|date=2019|orig-date=2013}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|~29|| At the beginning of the 19th century, no country in the world had a life expectancy at birth longer than 40 years, England, Belgium and the Netherlands came closest, each reaching 40 years by the 1840s (by which time they had been surpassed by Norway, Sweden and Denmark). India's life expectancy is estimated at ~25 years,<ref name="OurWorldInData"/> while Europe averaged ~33 years.<ref name="Li2021">{{cite book|vauthors=Li B|title=An Early Modern Economy in China|date=2021|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-47920-2|pages=246–247|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7H2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA247}}</ref>
|-
|Early 19th-century [[England]]<ref name="sticerd.lse.ac.uk"/><ref name="OurWorldInData"/><ref name="Maher2021"/>||style="text-align:center;"|40|| Remaining years of life averaged ~45<ref name="Maher2021" />–47 for the 84% who survived the first year. Life expectancy fell to ~40 years at age 20, then ~20 years at age 50 and ~10 years at age 70.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/> For a 15-year-old girl it was ~40–45.<ref name="Griffin2008"/> For the upper-class, LEB rose from ~45 to 50.<ref name="Maher2021"/>
Only half of the people born in the early 19th century made it past their 50th birthday. In contrast, 97% of the people born in 21st century England and Wales can expect to live longer than 50 years.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/>
|-
|19th-century [[British Raj|British India]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?year=1810|title=Life expectancy|work=[[Our World in Data]]|access-date=2018-08-28}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|25.4||
|-
|19th-century world average<ref name="OurWorldInData"/>||style="text-align:center;"|28.5–32|| Over the course of the century: Europe rose from ~33 to 43, the Americas from ~35 to 41, Oceania ~35 to 48, Asia ~28, Africa 26.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/> In 1820s France, LEB was ~38, and for the 80% that survived, it rose to ~47. For Moscow serfs, LEB was ~34, and for the 66% that survived, it rose to ~36.<ref name="Maher2021"/> Western Europe in 1830 was ~33 years, while for the people of Hau-Lou in China, it was ~40.<ref name="Li2021"/> The LEB for a 10-year-old in Sweden rose from ~44 to ~54.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/>
|-
|1900 world average<ref name="WHO Consultant 2006">{{cite web|url=https://www.who.int/global_health_histories/seminars/presentation07.pdf|title=Health, history and hard choices: Funding dilemmas in a fast-changing world|access-date=4 November 2010|vauthors=Prentice T|website=World Health Organization: Global Health Histories}}</ref>||style="text-align:center;"|31–32<ref name="OurWorldInData"/>|| Around 48 years in Oceania, 43 in Europe, and 41 in the Americas.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/> Around 47 in the U.S.<ref name="Kotre1997"/> and around 48 for 15-year-old girls in England.<ref name="Griffin2008"/>
|-
|1950 world average<ref name="WHO Consultant 2006"/>||style="text-align:center;"|45.7–48<ref name="OurWorldInData" />|| Around 60 years in Europe, North America, Oceania, Japan, and parts of South America; but only 41 in Asia and 36 in Africa. Norway led with 72, while in Mali it was merely 26.<ref name="OurWorldInData"/>
|-
|2019–2020 world average|| style="text-align:center;" |72.6–73.2 <br><ref name="OurWorldInData"/><ref>72.6
* {{cite web|publisher=U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs|work=Population Division|title=World Population Prospects 2019|url=https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf|access-date=28 June 2021|archive-date=12 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512070724/https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf|url-status=dead}}
72.7
* {{cite web|url=http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN|title=Life expectancy at birth, total (years) – Data|website=data.worldbank.org}}</ref><ref name=Worldometer>
{{cite web|title=Life Expectancy by Country and in the World|work=Worldometer|url=https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/}}</ref> ||| {{plainlist|
* Females: 75.6 years
* Males: 70.8 years
* Range: ~54 (Central African Republic) – 85.3 (Hong Kong)<ref name="Worldometer" />
}}
|}
English life expectancy at birth averaged about 36 years in the 17th and 18th centuries, one of the highest levels in the world although infant and child mortality remained higher than in later periods. Life expectancy was under 25 years in the early [[Colony of Virginia]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Medicine & Health|url=http://www.stratfordhall.org/educational-resources/teacher-resources/medicine-health/|work=Stratfordhall.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215062621/http://stratfordhall.org/educational-resources/teacher-resources/medicine-health/|archive-date=15 February 2020}}</ref> and in seventeenth-century New England, about 40% died before reaching adulthood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm|title=Death in Early America|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230203658/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm|archive-date=30 December 2010|work=Digital History}}</ref> During the [[Industrial Revolution]], the life expectancy of children increased dramatically.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387301/modernization/12022/Population-change|title=Population Change Modernization|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=25 May 2024}}</ref> Recorded deaths among children under the age of 5 years fell in London from 74.5% of the recorded births in 1730–49 to 31.8% in 1810–29,<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Buer MC|title=Health, Wealth and Population in the Early Days of the Industrial Revolution|location=London|publisher=George Routledge & Sons|date=1926|page=30|isbn=978-0-415-38218-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/foundling_01.shtml|publisher=BBC|title=History—The Foundling Hospital|date=1 May 2001}}</ref> though this overstates mortality and its fall because of net immigration (hence more dying in the metropolis than were born there) and incomplete registration (particularly of births, and especially in the earlier period). English life expectancy at birth reached 41 years in the 1840s, 43 in the 1870s and 46 in the 1890s, though infant mortality remained at around 150 per thousand throughout this period.

[[File:Life expectancy in 1800, 1950, and 2015.png|thumb|Life expectancy in 1800, 1950, and 2015 – visualization by [[Our World in Data]]]]

[[Public health]] measures are credited with much of the recent increase in life expectancy. During the 20th century, despite a brief drop due to the [[1918 flu pandemic]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=1918$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=194;dataMax=96846$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=23;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=;modified=75|title=Gapminder World|publisher=Gapminder Foundation}}</ref> the average lifespan in the United States increased by more than 30 years, of which 25 years can be attributed to advances in public health.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=CDC|title=Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999|journal=MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report|volume=48|issue=12|pages=241–243|date=April 1999|pmid=10220250|url=http://cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm}} [http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/281/16/1481 Reprinted] in: {{cite journal|vauthors=|title=From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999|journal=JAMA|volume=281|issue=16|pages=1481|date=April 1999|pmid=10227303|doi=10.1001/jama.281.16.1481|s2cid=2030845|doi-access=}}</ref>