Life expectancy in 1900 was under 48. Did people back then really die at 40?

The number is real. But life expectancy at birth averages every death together, including the many babies and young children who died in 1900. Most adults lived far longer than the average suggests.

United States, 1900

Life expectancy at birth
48
the average age at death, counting every baby born
Died before age 5
1 in 5
children, most of them before their first birthday
Made it to 20?
62
the average age you'd go on to reach

How long you could expect to live in 1900, depending on the age you'd already reached

Each bar ends at the average age at death for people who had already reached that age.

Bar chart for the United States in 1900. Average age at death: 48 counting from birth; 55 for those who reached age 1; 59 for age 5; 62 for age 20; 68 for age 40; 75 for age 60; 77 for age 65. A dashed line at age 40 marks the "died at 40" myth, which every bar past birth goes well beyond. The "died at 40" mythEvery bar after birth goes well past it At birth 48 Age 1 55 Age 5 59 Age 20 62 Age 40 68 Age 60 75 Age 65 77 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Age
Years already lived Years still expected, on average

An average can describe almost nobody. In 1900, deaths clustered at two ends of life: in early childhood and in old age. Averaging a baby who died at 1 with a grandmother who died at 75 gives 38, an age at which neither of them died. Once a child made it past the dangerous early years, reaching 60 or 70 was common.

The same trap works anywhere a few extreme values sit far from the rest: average income pulled up by a few billionaires, an average commute pulled up by a few long ones. Before trusting what an average says about a typical person, ask how spread out the numbers behind it are.

What average have you heard that might describe almost no one it's supposed to be about?

The numbers for men and women
Already reachedMen: expected age at deathWomen: expected age at deathStill alive at this age, of 100 born
Birth46.449.0100
Age 154.355.687
Age 558.859.980
Age 2061.762.975
Age 4067.568.7Not published
Age 6074.275.046
Age 6576.477.039

The chart uses the average of the men's and women's figures. These are "period" numbers: they describe the death rates of 1900 as if a person lived their whole life under them. People born in 1900 actually lived longer, because medicine kept improving during their lives. The government's official figure for 1900, based on the 10 states that recorded deaths then, is 47.3.

So what made life expectancy rise so much?

Mostly, fewer children died. Clean water, sewers, pasteurized milk, vaccines and later antibiotics cut deaths from infections that hit babies and young children hardest. Saving a baby adds 70 or more years to the average; adding a year to an 80-year-old's life adds just one. That's why life expectancy at birth rose by about 30 years over the 20th century, while the years still expected at age 65 grew by only about 6.

Related exhibits

Sources: U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary, Actuarial Study No. 116, period life tables for calendar year 1900 (Social Security area, by sex); National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, life expectancy at birth for 1900 (death registration states).