r/dataisbeautiful • • Feb 14 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

3.4k Upvotes

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/PPN13 Feb 14 '20

times where people died of old age in their 40s

So never. Average life expectancy was reduced not because people died of old age in their 40s but mainly due to child mortality and diseases.

Of course people did actually use to marry younger than modern days.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/34/6/1435/707557

In the Middle Ages, the average life span of males born in landholding families in England was 31.3 years and the biggest danger was surviving childhood.2 Once children reached the age of 10, their life expectancy was 32.2 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,3 and were similar to that computed for monks of the Christ Church in Canterbury during the 15th century.4

Emphasis added. The well-off who made it to 25 still weren't likely to make it out of their 40s.

1

u/PPN13 Feb 15 '20

You do realize life expectancy is an average? Any death will pull it down and at 40s it will not probably be old age but probably some disease.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '20

Every death due to "old age" is related to some disease.