Monday, September 04, 2017

This life..


Happened across this little chart today; it shows the % of people reaching a certain age (before death) vs the distribution of ages when people die in England and Wales (I guess Scotland wasn't included?). The kicker is that there's separate lines plotted for different years at suitable intervals back to 1851 enabling direct comparisons between decades etc.

Essentially you can use this chart to show how our life expectancy has increased since the 1850s and the result is amazing. In 1851 around half of all people died before they reached the age of 50, today more than 50% of people reach the age of 95 and the trend is expected to continue (Trump and Kim permitting). Next time someone drones on about the "good old days" (especially if they're over 50!) just remind them of this stark set of data. PS. look at how infant mortality has improved as well, probably at a greater rate than even the average.

No comments: