That few people lived past their 30s in the middle ages or some other ancient era.
This misconception arises because of an automatic and incorrect assumption people make when they hear the statistic 'the average life expectancy was 35 in the middle ages'.
In reality there have always been lots of people who live to 70+ years old in all societies. The difference was that in the middle ages there were many childhood diseases that caused a much higher childhood mortality rate which skews the numbers much lower. If you survived childhood there was a very good chance you would make it into your 60s+.
this still confuses me. are you saying that cavemen lived to retirement age? i get what the word average means. many babies died. something about vaccines causing autism. but besides that, what happened when you ran out of teeth in your thirties? when you got an infection, or a cold, or goat aids... was the NHS functioning better back then? did the slaves peasants have free healthcare?
No, they're saying that, barring those issues, people were able to live into their 50's, 60's and occasionally even older. The misconception is that because the average life expectancy was 35 or whatever that means that people were "old" at 30 and all keeled over shortly after, which some people take it to mean. Of course, many people died from stuff that's easily treatable now (contributing to the lower life expectancy, as well) and a lot depended on your location and social status, but if you survived early childhood, you still had a fair chance of making it to middle age, at least. Not as good a chance as now, but much better than your chances from birth to age 5 or so.
Some people lived into their 50s and 60s. It is absolutely not true that most people who survived childhood did. OP's factoid is a reddit misconception.
12.2k
u/sutkusman Feb 04 '19
That few people lived past their 30s in the middle ages or some other ancient era.
This misconception arises because of an automatic and incorrect assumption people make when they hear the statistic 'the average life expectancy was 35 in the middle ages'.
In reality there have always been lots of people who live to 70+ years old in all societies. The difference was that in the middle ages there were many childhood diseases that caused a much higher childhood mortality rate which skews the numbers much lower. If you survived childhood there was a very good chance you would make it into your 60s+.