Rowbotham and Clayton (JRSM 2008;101:454–62) make a very important point when they draw attention to the life expectancy at birth compared to life expectancy at 5+ years of age.1 They state ‘… life expectancy in the mid-Victorian period was not markedly different from what it is today. Once infant mortality is stripped out, life expectancy at 5 years was 75 for men and 73 for women.’ In 1995 Griffin2 produced a comparison of life expectancy of mature men (15+years of age) at different points in history over the last 3000 years ( Table 1).
Table 1.
Calculations of life expectancy throughout history
| Date | Mean age ± SD | Sample (n) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kings of Judah4 | 1000–6000 BC | 52 ± 15.29 | 15 |
| Greek philosophers, poets and politicians3 | 450–150 BC | 68 ± 13.3 | 29 |
| Post 100 BC | 71.5 | 30 | |
| Roman philosophers, poets and politicians3 | 30 BC– 120 AD | 56.2 ± 15.5 | 39 |
| Christian Church Fathers5 | 150–400 AD | 63.4 ± 10.7 | 18 |
| Italian painters6 | 1300–1570 AD | 62.7 ± 17.4 | 21 |
| Italian philosophers7 | 1300–1600 AD | 68.9 ± 15.2 | 27 |
| Monks Roll of Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians | 1500–1640 AD | 67 ± 8.8 | 37 |
| 1720–1800 AD | 62.8 ± 16.6 | 99 | |
| 1800–1840 AD | 71.2 ± 9.8 | 109 | |
| OPCS life span at 15 years | 1931 | 66.2 | |
| 1951 | 68.9 | ||
| 1981 | 72.0 |
Montagu3 excluded from his calculations any who died violently; no such exclusion was made from any of the other figures presented in Table 1. Montagu noted a dip in life expectancy in Roman figures and attributed this to lead plumbing. The change in life expectancy of mature men has not changed as dramatically over 3000 years as might be expected, although this data must of necessity refer to privileged members of society.
Life expectancy of women at the age of 15 years has however changed dramatically over the last 600 years ( Table 2) and by a decade and a half since the mid-Victorian period. For men, Rowbtham and Clayton have a point but are incorrect as far as women's life expectancy is concerned.
Table 2.
Life expectancy of mature women taken from Hollingsworth8 and OPCS data for England and Wales
| Date | Life expectancy of women at 15 years (years) |
|---|---|
| 1480–1679 | 48.2 |
| 1680–1779 | 56.6 |
| 1780–1879 | 64.6 |
| 1891 | 61.6 |
| 1901 | 62.6 |
| 1911 | 66.4 |
| 1921 | 68.1 |
| 1951 | 73.4 |
| 1961 | 75.7 |
| 1971 | 76.8 |
| 1981 | 78.0 |
| 1989 | 79.2 |
Footnotes
Conflicting interests None declared
References
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