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<blockquote data-quote="aspqrz" data-source="post: 7248298" data-attributes="member: 19485"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px">The Grim Reaper ...</span></strong></p><p></p><p>Most of you are probably aware that medieval life expectancy was less than that of a modern First World country today - a range (depending on time and place) of 30-40 years compared to the 82.45 years a modern Australian (for example) can expect.</p><p> </p><p>My experience in teaching this sort of thing over the years has been that not everyone fully grasps exactly what this means ... and, indeed, that there is a great deal of confusion over it (if you're not in that category, bear with me for a moment) ...</p><p></p><p>The 30-40 figure is reasonably correct (there are some problems with it due to the lack of actual written records ... but experts agree it is in the right ballpark) ... but some people assume that means everyone was dead by the time they hit 40! </p><p></p><p>Of course, that isn't true ... it's an average ... and its dragged down by the extremely high infant mortality rate, a rate akin to the worst Third World hellholes today.</p><p> </p><p>What gives a better picture of the medieval reality is the median age - today it is ~38, back then it was ~21 ... that is, approximately 50% of people were 21 years of age or younger (in fact, a full 29% were in the 0-13 year age group, compared to around 7-8% for modern Europe).</p><p> </p><p>Wherever you went in medieval Europe you will see lots of young people. Lots.</p><p></p><p>Still, it doesn't mean everyone was dead by 40 ... in fact, if a male managed to hit his 20th birthday the statistics (such as they are) show they were more likely than not to reach their 45th birthday ... and if they reached their 30th birthday they were more likely than not to make it into their 50's. Some even managed to make it to the biblical three score years and ten. Not many, though ... about 2.1% (and 0.1% for 80+) compared with 3.2% for (0.7% for 80+) modern males (and 5.4%/1.6% for modern females).</p><p></p><p>The interesting thing is, as far as we can tell, there wasn't a huge variation across social classes ... modern medicine makes a huge difference there ... because the rich almost universally ate an unhealthy amount of rich foods, so they died of different diseases to the peasantry.</p><p></p><p>Where there was a big difference was with female life expectancy ... until recently (the last 40-50 years or so) the single biggest killer of women by far was pregnancy, childbirth and related complications. In the medieval period that was much worse ... in general, women had a 10% bonus to life expectancy through to marriage, a 40% drop during their childbearing years, and a 10% bounce-back (for those who survived) after menopause (usually in their 40's ... poor diet).</p><p></p><p>In fact, there was a 5% chance per pregnancy of them dying ... compared to modern First World countries where it is generally 0.01% or less.</p><p></p><p>So, a lot of young faces in the crowd ... and a reason why the evil stepmother is a stock fictional character from pre-modern times!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aspqrz, post: 7248298, member: 19485"] [B][SIZE=3]The Grim Reaper ...[/SIZE][/B] Most of you are probably aware that medieval life expectancy was less than that of a modern First World country today - a range (depending on time and place) of 30-40 years compared to the 82.45 years a modern Australian (for example) can expect. My experience in teaching this sort of thing over the years has been that not everyone fully grasps exactly what this means ... and, indeed, that there is a great deal of confusion over it (if you're not in that category, bear with me for a moment) ... The 30-40 figure is reasonably correct (there are some problems with it due to the lack of actual written records ... but experts agree it is in the right ballpark) ... but some people assume that means everyone was dead by the time they hit 40! Of course, that isn't true ... it's an average ... and its dragged down by the extremely high infant mortality rate, a rate akin to the worst Third World hellholes today. What gives a better picture of the medieval reality is the median age - today it is ~38, back then it was ~21 ... that is, approximately 50% of people were 21 years of age or younger (in fact, a full 29% were in the 0-13 year age group, compared to around 7-8% for modern Europe). Wherever you went in medieval Europe you will see lots of young people. Lots. Still, it doesn't mean everyone was dead by 40 ... in fact, if a male managed to hit his 20th birthday the statistics (such as they are) show they were more likely than not to reach their 45th birthday ... and if they reached their 30th birthday they were more likely than not to make it into their 50's. Some even managed to make it to the biblical three score years and ten. Not many, though ... about 2.1% (and 0.1% for 80+) compared with 3.2% for (0.7% for 80+) modern males (and 5.4%/1.6% for modern females). The interesting thing is, as far as we can tell, there wasn't a huge variation across social classes ... modern medicine makes a huge difference there ... because the rich almost universally ate an unhealthy amount of rich foods, so they died of different diseases to the peasantry. Where there was a big difference was with female life expectancy ... until recently (the last 40-50 years or so) the single biggest killer of women by far was pregnancy, childbirth and related complications. In the medieval period that was much worse ... in general, women had a 10% bonus to life expectancy through to marriage, a 40% drop during their childbearing years, and a 10% bounce-back (for those who survived) after menopause (usually in their 40's ... poor diet). In fact, there was a 5% chance per pregnancy of them dying ... compared to modern First World countries where it is generally 0.01% or less. So, a lot of young faces in the crowd ... and a reason why the evil stepmother is a stock fictional character from pre-modern times! [/QUOTE]
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