In a Medieval/Middle-Ages/Dark Ages period, how long would a person be expected to live, on average? By dying I mean old-age, not disease/battle/famine/whatever. I mean a mortal man by this, not a god, elf, wizard...
Age/Deaths Question
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Higgins
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Life expectancy was pretty low, though not as bad as in Early Modern Cities. Generally, the denser the population the more of it dies sooner in the days before modern sanitation and medicine. On the other hand, as always, a certain subset lives to fine old ages.
Enrico Dondolo may have been about 97 and blind when he led the 4th Crusade into Constantinople.
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It does? I thought it talked about everyone living to be 700 or more years old?
Anyway, yeah, middle ages, without healthcare, or proper nutrition, poor infant care, I think the average age was somewhere in their 30s.
That average is skewed by the numbers that died in early childhood.
Edward III of England was the longest lived medieval king of England, he made it to 64.
Edward III of England was the longest lived medieval king of England, he made it to 64.
J. R. Tomlin
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Probably over 50% of all children died before the age of 3 and the mortality rate for women in childbirth was probably at least 25% and both factors would skew averages. As Waylander pointed out, Edward III reaching 64 was considered tremendously old and he was royalty. The chances of someone not royalty living anywhere near that old were slim, and, of course, women very rarely lived as long because of the hazards of childbirth.
It's hard to give an average simply because records weren't kept then that would allow it to be given with any accuracy, but someone of any status who reached 40 was well beyond middle age.
It's hard to give an average simply because records weren't kept then that would allow it to be given with any accuracy, but someone of any status who reached 40 was well beyond middle age.
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Life expectancy statistics can be misleading if they don't separate out infant mortality (which most don't). A simplified example -- say a third of all babies die before age two, but the ones who survive live to age 60, then the "average" life expectancy is about 41. Any period before modern medicine had what we would now consider high infant mortality, although it varied just how high.
Put it this way, 500 years ago I'd be middle-aged. Or ancient.
aadams73 - don't bloody say it. I know you're dying to, but just shut up.
aadams73 - don't bloody say it. I know you're dying to, but just shut up.
If you exclude everything but old age people lived for as long as they do no. Actually, people don't ever die of "old age" but of one of many age-related problems.
Anyway, it depends a lot on the specific time period and culture you're talking about, but generally, if they didn't die as children, and managed to survive the risky times where they'd be of the right age to be drafted to war, people got to live pretty long. Not many people managed to 60-70, but if you got to age 40 alive your chances were pretty good to live another one or two decades.
Anyway, it depends a lot on the specific time period and culture you're talking about, but generally, if they didn't die as children, and managed to survive the risky times where they'd be of the right age to be drafted to war, people got to live pretty long. Not many people managed to 60-70, but if you got to age 40 alive your chances were pretty good to live another one or two decades.
johnnysannie
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Average life expectancy was about 30 years of age; forty was old age and beyond that, amazing.
That's not to say that everyone was old at 30 or dead by 40; today's life expectancy in the US is around 77 years - as most of us will know, many die at an older age, many die at a younger age.
The Dark and Middle Ages were hard, however. Life overall was very difficult; famines, disease (including the plague) and war were all rather common.
That's not to say that everyone was old at 30 or dead by 40; today's life expectancy in the US is around 77 years - as most of us will know, many die at an older age, many die at a younger age.
The Dark and Middle Ages were hard, however. Life overall was very difficult; famines, disease (including the plague) and war were all rather common.
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