Over the past 160 years, life expectancy (from birth) in the United States has risen from 39.4 years in 1860, to 78.9 years in 2020. One of the major reasons for the overall increase of life expectancy in the last two centuries is the fact that the infant and child mortality rates have decreased by so much during this time. Medical advancements, fewer wars and improved living standards also mean that people are living longer than they did in previous centuries.

Despite this overall increase, the life expectancy dropped three times since 1860; from 1865 to 1870 during the American Civil War, from 1915 to 1920 during the First World War and following Spanish Flu epidemic, and it has dropped again between 2015 and now. The reason for the most recent drop in life expectancy is not a result of any specific event, but has been attributed to negative societal trends, such as unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, high medical costs, and increasing rates of suicide and drug use.

Life expectancy in the United Kingdom was below 39 years in the year 1765, and over the course of the next two and a half centuries, it is expected to have increased by more than double, to 81.1 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout the UK's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. These changes were the result of smallpox epidemics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new sanitary and medical advancements throughout time (such as compulsory vaccination), and the First world War and Spanish Flu epidemic in the 1910s.

PERIOD: From Apr. 1935 to Mar. 1936. NOTE: A life table shows various statistics relating to the life expectancy of a population, such as the number of survivors and deaths, survival and death rates, and the average life expectancy. The survival rate for a certain age is calculated as the share of individuals that reach the next age, while the death rate is one minus the survival rate, that is, the share of individuals that do not reach the next age. Finally, the average life expectancy for a certain age is the sum of the number of years that all individuals of that age continue to live divided by the initial number of individuals, that is, the average number of years that someone of a certain age should continue to live. . SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].

At the beginning of the 1840s, life expectancy from birth in Ireland was just over 38 years. However, this figure would see a dramatic decline with the beginning of the Great Famine in 1845, and dropped below 21 years in the second half of the decade (in 1849 alone, life expectancy fell to just 14 years). The famine came as a result of a Europe-wide potato blight, which had a disproportionally devastating impact on the Irish population due to the dependency on potatoes (particularly in the south and east), and the prevalence of a single variety of potato on the island that allowed the blight to spread faster than in other areas of Europe. Additionally, authorities forcefully redirected much of the country's surplus grain to the British mainland, which exacerbated the situation. Within five years, mass starvation would contribute to the deaths of over one million people on the island, while a further one million would emigrate; this also created a legacy of emigration from Ireland, which saw the population continue to fall until the mid-1900s, and the total population of the island is still well below its pre-famine level of 8.5 million people.

Following the end of the Great Famine, life expectancy would begin to gradually increase in Ireland, as post-famine reforms would see improvements in the living standards of the country’s peasantry, most notably the Land Wars, a largely successful series of strikes, boycotts and protests aimed at reform of the country's agricultural land distribution, which began in the 1870s and lasted into the 20th century. As these reforms were implemented, life expectancy in Ireland would rise to more than fifty years by the turn of the century. While this rise would slow somewhat in the 1910s, due to the large number of Irish soldiers who fought in the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic, as well as the period of civil unrest leading up to the island's partition in 1921, life expectancy in Ireland would rise greatly in the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, Ireland's healthcare system and living standards developed similarly to the rest of Western Europe, and today, it is often ranks among the top countries globally in terms of human development, GDP and quality of healthcare. With these developments, the increase in life expectancy from birth in Ireland was relatively constant in the first century of independence, and in 2020 is estimated to be 82 years.

Life expectancy in Germany was below 39 in the year 1875, and over the course of the next 145 years, it is expected to have increased to above 81 years in the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Germany's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. The most notable changes were because of the First and Second World Wars, in the first half of the twentieth century.

Life expectancy in India was 25.4 in the year 1800, and over the course of the next 220 years, it has increased to almost 70. Between 1800 and 1920, life expectancy in India remained in the mid to low twenties, with the largest declines coming in the 1870s and 1910s; this was because of the Great Famine of 1876-1878, and the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919, both of which were responsible for the deaths of up to six and seventeen million Indians respectively; as well as the presence of other endemic diseases in the region, such as smallpox. From 1920 onwards, India's life expectancy has consistently increased, but it is still below the global average.

In 1910, life expectancy from birth in the region of present-day Syria was estimated at 32 years. This figure would see little change until 1935, outside of a brief dip in the late 1910s as the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic would spread across the area. Life expectancy then began rising sharply from the late 1930s onwards, as modernization programs implemented by French, British and, later, independent authorities saw mass vaccination campaigns and healthcare improvements which greatly reduced child mortality rates. This climb would continue throughout the rest of the 20th century, and as a result, by 2000, the average person born in Syria could expect to live to over the age of 72.

However, life expectancy would see a sudden fall with the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. After peaking at just over 74 years in 2010, life expectancy would fall to just under 70 years by 2015, as the country’s civil war would lead to an estimated half a million fatalities, as well as mass displacement and the exodus of refugees from the country. As the fighting has gradually decreased in intensity in recent years, life expectancy of Syria has risen slightly, and in 2020, the average person born in Syria can expect to live to just over 71 years on average; although there is a difference of over eleven years in life expectancy between male and females.

Long time series of Vienna’s population history from 1700 to 1999.

With this study the author A. Weigl submits the first detailed report on the population history of Vienna over the period from the late mediaevial time until the 20th century.

The author documents by means of the development of migration, reproduction and mortality the process of Vienna’s population history. Important influencing factors as for excample food pattern, plagues and epidemics, medical advance, the change of mentalities and influences by demographic policies are discussed in detail. The significant role of modenization-processes is in the focus of the publication.

By means of numerous long time series data the pecesses are documented empirically.

Content of the Study: - Demographic Change and Modernization - Main Features of Vienna’s Population Development - Migration: The Impetus for an Increasing Town - Mortality: From Town Refurbishment to Municipal Welfare Policy - Fertility: The Genesis of the Modern Family - The Common Modernizationcontext of Transition

List of Data-Tables in the GESIS-ZA-Online-Database HISTAT:

A. Population Development of Vienna

A.01 Population (1200-1999) A.02 Population Development by Territory as of Today (1590-1999) A.03 Regional Population Development (1700-1991) A.04 Population Movement (1869-1991) A.05 Agestructure (1856-1991) A.06 Population Development of the City, the suburbs and the periphery (1777-1857) A.07 Population by Urban Districts by Territory as of Today (1777-1991) A.08 Population by Urban Districts (1869-1939) A.09 Native Birth of the Population (1856-1934) A.10 Natural Population Movement (1707-1999) A.11 Proportion of Persons Younger than 14 Years by Urban Districts (1869-1939) A.12 Proportion of Persons in the Age of 60 and older by Urban Districts (1869-1939) A.13 Population and Birth Rates by Religious Denomination (1856-1939)

B. Migration

B.01 Ratios of Mobility-Transition (1710-1991) B.02 Acceptation of new Members into the Homeland Association (Naturalizations) (1919-1938)

C. Mortality

C.01 Age specific Mortality-Rates of Vienna (1856-1939) C.02 Age standardized Morality-Rates by Sex and by Causes of Death (1910-1935) C.03 Cholera-Mortality by Urnab Districts (1831-1873) C.04 Variola-Mortality (1728-1938) C.05 Average Life Expectancy (1830-1998) C.06a Age-Specific Mortality: Mortality Rates (1650-1999) C.06b Age-Specific Mortality: Agestructure of the Deceased (1650-1999) C.07a Infant Mortality (1728-1999) C.07b Infant Mortality Rate by Territory as of Today (1871-1938) C.08 Mortality Rates by Urban Districts (1871-1938) C.09 Infant Mortality by Urban Districts (1885-1911) C.10 Pulmonary Tuberculosis-Mortality by Urban Districts (1871-1938)

D. Fertiliy

D.01 General Fertility-Rate of Vienna (1856-1939) D.02 Fertility-Rate (1754-1999) D.03 Fertility-Indizes by Metropolitan Comparison (1910-1960) D.04 Illegitimacy-Rates (1797-1999) D.05 Marriage Rate, Birthrate and Deathrate (1706-1938) D.06 Marriage-, Mortality- and Infant Mortality Rate by Territory as of Today (1871-1938) D.07 Birth Rate by Urban Districts (1783-1938)

E. Housholds

E.01 Average Householdsize (1780-1991)

Life expectancy in China was just 32 in the year 1850, and over the course of the next 170 years, it is expected to more than double to 76.6 years in 2020. Between 1850 and 1950, finding reliable data proved difficult for anthropologists, however some events, such as the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt in the nineteenth century did reduce life expectancy by a few years, and also the Chinese Civil War and Second World War in the first half of the twentieth century. In the second half of the 1900s, Chinese life expectancy increased greatly, as the country became more industrialized and the standard of living increased.

Life expectancy in Japan was 36.4 in the year 1860, and over the course of the next 160 years, it is expected to have increased to 84.4, which is the second highest in the world (after Monaco). Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Japan's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. These changes were a result of the Spanish Flu in the 1910s, the Second World War in the 1940s, and the sharp increase was due to the high rate of industrialization and economic prosperity in Japan, in the mid-twentieth century.

Life expectancy in Russia was 29.6 in the year 1845, and over the course of the next 175 years, it is expected to have increased to 72.3 years by 2020. Generally speaking, Russian life expectancy has increased over this 175 year period, however events such as the World Wars, Russian Revolution and a series of famines caused fluctuations before the mid-twentieth century, where the rate fluctuated sporadically. Between 1945 and 1950, Russian life expectancy more than doubled in this five year period, and it then proceeded to increase until the 1970s, when it then began to fall again. Between 1970 and 2005, the number fell from 68.5 to 65, before it then grew again in more recent years.

Life expectancy in New Zealand was just over 34 in the year 1870, and over the course of the next 150 years, it is expected to have increased to just over 82 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased along a gradual curve throughout New Zealand's history, there was a slight dip in the late 1910s, as a result of the First World War and following influenza epidemic. Apart from this, there were no anomalies that reduced life expectancy throughout this 150 year period.

Life expectancy in Canada was just below forty in the year 1800, and over the course of the next 220 years, it is expected to have increased by more than double to 82.2 by the year 2020. Throughout this time, life expectancy in Canada progressed at a steady rate, with the most noticeable changes coming during the interwar period, where the rate of increase was affected by the Spanish Flu epidemic and both World Wars.

Life expectancy in Poland was 35.9 in the year 1885, and over the course of the next 135 years, it is expected to have increased to 78.5 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Poland's history, the most noticeable decline came in the 1940s as a result of the Second World War and Holocaust, which caused Poland's population to decline by about 17 percent, which was more than any other country.

Life expectancy in France was below thirty in the late 1700s, but over the course of the next two and a half centuries it is expected to reach 82.5 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout France's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. The most noticeable changes were because of smallpox and influenza epidemics in the 1700s, medical advancements (such as vaccination and pasteurization) saw life expectancy increase in the 1800s, and then both World Wars and the epidemics that followed caused brief drops in the first half of the twentieth century.

Life expectancy in Spain was below thirty in the year 1880, and over the course of the next 140 years, it is expected to have increased to 83.4 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout Spain's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. The most notable changes were a result of the global influenza epidemic of the 1910s, (called the 'Spanish Flu' as it received more press coverage in neutral Spain, during the First World War) and the Spanish Civil War two decades later.