Research suggests that the averagelife expectancyof Paleolithic-era people (12,000 years ago and earlier) was around 33 years.
Relative age is the comparison of one fossil to another fossil to determine which is younger or older.
Scientists note that the main factors limiting life expectancy wereinfant deathsand early deaths caused bymalnutritionor disease.
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This was due in part to infant mortality rates that remained at 25% until 1800.
An example of this was offered by Scottish researcher T.H.
Hollingworth, who described the life expectancy of women at age 15 from pre-industrial times to modern times.
Today and the Future
However, the life expectancy path is always upward.
Other factors like drug overdose, suicide, homicide, and heart disease have also had an impact.
It was the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since the years 1921 to 1923.
Other researchers predict that lifestyle factors likeobesitymay halt or even reverse the rise in life expectancy.
In 1900, life expectancy was only around 47 years.
Today, the average life expectancy for someone living in the United States is around 78 years.
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2006;129(4):512517. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20360
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.History of smallpox.
Taylor and Francis, London; 2017.
Central Intelligence Agency.Country comparison: life expectancy at birth.
National Center for Health Statistics.Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row in 2021.
Olshansky SJ, Carnes BA.The future of human longevity.
In: Uhlenberg P, ed.International Handbook of Population Aging.
Angel JL.The bases of paleodemography.Am J Phys Anthropol.
