Romola Davenport & Jim Oeppen
Campop’s studies of mortality suggest that, in England, average life expectancy at birth varied between 35 and 40 years in the centuries between 1600 and 1800. It is a common misconception that, when life expectancy was so low, there must have been very few old people. In fact, the most common age for adult deaths was around 70 years, in line with the Biblical three score years and ten. So what does ‘life expectancy’ actually measure?
Tags: demography, economic history, life expectancy, mortality, old age, social history
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
age at marriage agricultural revolution census coal demographic transition demography domestic labour economic history English peasants extended family family history family size family tree famine fertility fossil fuels genealogies households industrial revolution marriage maternal mortality medieval medieval history middle ages migration mortality naming practices occupational structure occupations old age old people parish registers poll tax poor laws population size service social history surnames urbanisation wages women's employment women's history women's wages women's work work
© 2025 University of Cambridge
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure