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.

For most of the world, throughout most of human history, the average life expectancy from birth was around 24. This figure fluctuated greatly depending on the time or region, and was higher than 24 in most individual years, but factors such as pandemics, famines, and conflicts caused regular spikes in mortality and reduced life expectancy. Child mortality The most significant difference between historical mortality rates and modern figures is that child and infant mortality was so high in pre-industrial times; before the introduction of vaccination, water treatment, and other medical knowledge or technologies, women would have around seven children throughout their lifetime, but around half of these would not make it to adulthood. Accurate, historical figures for infant mortality are difficult to ascertain, as it was so prevalent, it took place in the home, and was rarely recorded in censuses; however, figures from this source suggest that the rate was around 300 deaths per 1,000 live births in some years, meaning that almost one in three infants did not make it to their first birthday in certain periods. For those who survived to adolescence, they could expect to live into their forties or fifties on average. Modern figures It was not until the eradication of plague and improvements in housing and infrastructure in recent centuries where life expectancy began to rise in some parts of Europe, before industrialization and medical advances led to the onset of the demographic transition across the world. Today, global life expectancy from birth is roughly three times higher than in pre-industrial times, at almost 73 years. It is higher still in more demographically and economically developed countries; life expectancy is over 82 years in the three European countries shown, and over 84 in Japan. For the least developed countries, mostly found in Sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy from birth can be as low as 53 years.

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.

A global phenomenon, known as the demographic transition, has seen life expectancy from birth increase rapidly over the past two centuries. In pre-industrial societies, the average life expectancy was around 24 years, and it is believed that this was the case throughout most of history, and in all regions. The demographic transition then began in the industrial societies of Europe, North America, and the West Pacific around the turn of the 19th century, and life expectancy rose accordingly. Latin America was the next region to follow, before Africa and most Asian populations saw their life expectancy rise throughout the 20th century.

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.

This collection contains five modified data sets with mortality, population, and other demographic information for five American cities (Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City (Manhattan only), New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. Mortality was represented by an annual crude death rate (deaths per 1000 population per year). The population was linearly interpolated from U.S. Census data and state census data (for Boston and New York City). All data sets include variables for year, total deaths, census populations, estimated annual linearly interpolated populations, and crude death rate. The Baltimore data set (DS0001) also provides birth and death rate variables based on race and slave status demographics, as well as a variable for stillbirths. The Philadelphia data set (DS0005) also includes variables for total births, total infant deaths, crude birth rate, and infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

It is only in the past two centuries where demographics and the development of human populations has emerged as a subject in its own right, as industrialization and improvements in medicine gave way to exponential growth of the world's population. There are very few known demographic studies conducted before the 1800s, which means that modern scholars have had to use a variety of documents from centuries gone by, along with archeological and anthropological studies, to try and gain a better understanding of the world's demographic development. Genealogical records One such method is the study of genealogical records from the past; luckily, there are many genealogies relating to European families that date back as far as medieval times. Unfortunately, however, all of these studies relate to families in the upper and elite classes; this is not entirely representative of the overall population as these families had a much higher standard of living and were less susceptible to famine or malnutrition than the average person (although elites were more likely to die during times of war). Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from this data. Impact of the Black Death In the centuries between 1200 and 1745, English male aristocrats who made it to their 21st birthday were generally expected to live to an age between 62 and 72 years old. The only century where life expectancy among this group was much lower was in the 1300s, where the Black Death caused life expectancy among adult English noblemen to drop to just 45 years. Experts assume that the pre-plague population of England was somewhere between four and seven million people in the thirteenth century, and just two million in the fourteenth century, meaning that Britain lost at least half of its population due to the plague. Although the plague only peaked in England for approximately eighteen months, between 1348 and 1350, it devastated the entire population, and further outbreaks in the following decades caused life expectancy in the decade to drop further. The bubonic plague did return to England sporadically until the mid-seventeenth century, although life expectancy among English male aristocrats rose again in the centuries following the worst outbreak, and even peaked at more than 71 years in the first half of the sixteenth century.

This data describes the average life expectancy at birth for various nations from 1543-2021 . Data Variable description: The average number of years that a newborn could expect to live, if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area. (Definition from the WHO) Data Variable time span: 1543 – 2021 Data published by : United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022, Online Edition; Zijdeman et al. (2015) (via clio-infra.eu); Riley, J. C. (2005). Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800-2001. Population and Development Review, 31(3), 537–543. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3401478 Link https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/ ; https://clioinfra.eu/Indicators/LifeExpectancyatBirthTotal.html ; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2005.00083.x;https://ourworldindata.org/health-meta License: Copyright © 2022 by United Nations, made available under a Creative Commons license CC BY 3.0 IGO: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/

In Sweden, the crude birth rate in 1800 was just under 29 live births per thousand people, meaning that roughly 2.9 percent of the population had been born in that year. In the nineteenth century, Sweden experienced various population-influencing events, such as separate wars with Norway and Russia, several smallpox epidemics, mass migration to the US, and industrialization. In this time, the crude birth rate fluctuated between 27 and 36 births per thousand. Between 1875 and 1935 this rate decreased consistently from 30.7 to 14.1. Sweden's crude birth rate stopped falling around the time of the Second World War, and rose to almost nineteen in 1945, before plateauing in the mid-teens between 1955 and 1970, where the decline then resumed. There was another brief increase during the late 1980s and 90s, however these numbers then dropped to their lowest recorded figure of 10.4 in the year 2000, and in 2020 the crude birth rate of Sweden is expected to be just under twelve births per thousand people.

In Poland, the crude birth rate in 1800 was 43.6 live births per thousand people, meaning that approximately 4.4 percent of the population had been born in that year. Throughout Poland's history, including the area of modern-day Poland that did not exist as a state until 1918, the crude birth rate has gradually decreased over the past 220 years, however it did fluctuate greatly over this period. In the nineteenth century, modern-day Poland was a part of many other states and empires, such as Austria, Germany, Lithuania and Russia, and the crude birth rate fluctuated between 38 and 48 throughout this period. In the twentieth century, Poland's crude birth rate declined, particularly before and during both World Wars, and in both cases there was a baby boom in the aftermath of the war. The rate did grow in the 1970s and 80s, however the fall of communism in 1989 caused the birth rate to drop again, reaching its lowest point of 9.4 in 2005. Since 2005, the crude birth rate has increased above ten again, but is expected to drop to 9.9 in 2020.

The child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just seven deaths per thousand births. Although the child mortality rate has decreased greatly over this 220 year period, there were two occasions where it increased; in the 1870s, as a result of the fourth cholera pandemic, smallpox outbreaks, and yellow fever, and in the late 1910s, due to the Spanish Flu pandemic.

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.

Adults (ages 15+) and children (0-14 years) living with HIV in Croatia was reported at 1800 Persons in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Croatia - Adults (ages 15+) and children (0-14 years) living with HIV - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. Between 1800 and 1830, Belgium's fertility rate dropped from 4.9 to 4.7 children per woman, before increasing to five children per woman in the decade following Belgium's independence in 1831, and then dropping again to 4.3 in 1855. After rising to 4.9 in 1875, the fertility rate then dropped in a very consistent gradient, reaching just below two in 1945. In contrast to the fertility rates of the neighboring France and Netherlands, this data shows that Belgium did not experience an increase after the First World War, despite being heavily involved. Belgium did however experience a baby boom following the Second World War, where the fertility rate increased to 2.7 in the late 1960s, before dropping to 1.6 in 1990, and it has remained between this number and 1.8 over the last thirty years.

Throughout most of history, average life expectancy from birth was fairly consistent across the globe, at around 24 years. A major contributor to this was high rates of infant and child mortality; those who survived into adulthood could expect to live to their 50s or 60s, yet pandemics, food instability, and conflict did cause regular spikes in mortality across the entire population. Gradually, from the 16th to 19th centuries, there was some growth in more developed societies, due to improvements in agriculture, infrastructure, and medical knowledge. However, the most significant change came with the introduction of vaccination and other medical advances in the 1800s, which saw a sharp decline in child mortality and the onset of the demographic transition. This phenomenon began in more developed countries in the 1800s, before spreading to Latin America, Asia, and (later) Africa in the 1900s. As the majority of the world's population lives in countries considered to be "less developed", this figure is much closer to the global average. However, today, there is a considerable difference in life expectancies across these countries, ranging from 84.7 years in Japan to 53 years in the Central African Republic.

The world's population first reached one billion people in 1803, and reach eight billion in 2023, and will peak at almost 11 billion by the end of the century. Although it took thousands of years to reach one billion people, it did so at the beginning of a phenomenon known as the demographic transition; from this point onwards, population growth has skyrocketed, and since the 1960s the population has increased by one billion people every 12 to 15 years. The demographic transition sees a sharp drop in mortality due to factors such as vaccination, sanitation, and improved food supply; the population boom that follows is due to increased survival rates among children and higher life expectancy among the general population; and fertility then drops in response to this population growth. Regional differences The demographic transition is a global phenomenon, but it has taken place at different times across the world. The industrialized countries of Europe and North America were the first to go through this process, followed by some states in the Western Pacific. Latin America's population then began growing at the turn of the 20th century, but the most significant period of global population growth occurred as Asia progressed in the late-1900s. As of the early 21st century, almost two thirds of the world's population live in Asia, although this is set to change significantly in the coming decades. Future growth The growth of Africa's population, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, will have the largest impact on global demographics in this century. From 2000 to 2100, it is expected that Africa's population will have increased by a factor of almost five. It overtook Europe in size in the late 1990s, and overtook the Americas a decade later. In contrast to Africa, Europe's population is now in decline, as birth rates are consistently below death rates in many countries, especially in the south and east, resulting in natural population decline. Similarly, the population of the Americas and Asia are expected to go into decline in the second half of this century, and only Oceania's population will still be growing alongside Africa. By 2100, the world's population will have over three billion more than today, with the vast majority of this concentrated in Africa. Demographers predict that climate change is exacerbating many of the challenges that currently hinder progress in Africa, such as political and food instability; if Africa's transition is prolonged, then it may result in further population growth that would place a strain on the region's resources, however, curbing this growth earlier would alleviate some of the pressure created by climate change.

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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.

The interest of the economic historical researcher in the interaction between economic and biological processes – especially concerning economic development – has increased recently. Individual somatic indicators are in a close relationship with the nutritional status and therefore with the demographic variables of the society, such as the expectation of life. These variables have in turn a feedback effect on economy by their influence on the labour productivity. In this context the meaning of anthropometric history of Afro-American people reveals by the discussions about their material living standard and here especially about the food they got during their captivity.

Topics: The data collection was compiled to identify the nutritional status of free African Americans in Maryland during the early 19th century. The data collection gives information about age, sex, birth year, size, federal state of birth, residence (or the place, where the former slaves got their freedom), colour of the skin, and if the person was born in freedom or if the person was given the freedom after the birth. In some cases the administrative district is documentated, in which the person was grown up.

Underway surface air temperature and sea water temperature were collected aboard the Skelton Castle while in route from England to Bombay India as part of the East India Company during the dates 28 February 1800 to 3 June 1800. The data were prepared by one Mr. R. Perrins on behalf of Sir Anthony Carlisle as part of a study "to determine whether fishes possess any other temperature than that of the water in which they live." A table containing the data was found in Nicholson's "Journal of Natural Philosophy", published in 1804.