Mortality in the past – around half From the 1500s onward, till around

died as children the year 1800, life expectancy

June 11, 2019 by Max Roser throughout Europe hovered between 30
and 40 years of age. Since the early
Mortality rate is higher before the 1800s, Finch writes that life
common era. expectancy at birth has doubled in a
Summary: Many researchers have period of only 10 or so generations.
independently studied mortality Improved health care, sanitation,
rates for children in the past: in immunizations, access to clean
different societies, locations, and running water, and better nutrition
historical periods. The average are all credited with the massive
across a large number of historical increase.
studies suggests that in the past Though it’s hard to imagine,
around one-quarter of infants died in doctors only began regularly washing
their first year of life and around their hands before surgery in the
half of all children died before they mid-1800s. A better understanding of
reached the end of puberty. hygiene and the transmission of
microbes has since contributed
Since then the risk of death substantially to public health.
for children has fallen around the Disease was still common, however,
world. The global average today is 10 and impacted life expectancy.
times lower than the average of the Parasites, typhoid, and infections
past. In countries with the best like rheumatic fever and scarlet
child health today an infant is 170 fever were all common during the
times more likely to survive. 1800s. Today most industrialized
countries boast life expectancy
figures of more than 75 years,
according to comparisons compiled by
A Guide to Longevity Throughout
the Central Intelligence Agency.
History, From the Prehistoric
Onward
(Increases in Lifespan From
Prehistory Through the Modern Era) Literacy
By Sharon Basaraba by Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-
Updated July 14, 2019 Ospina
First published in 2013; last
Average lifespan is higher during the revision September 20, 2018.
common era.
Literacy rate is higher during the
Life expectancy estimates that common era.
describe the population as a whole
also suffer from a lack of reliable Global literacy has grown
evidence gathered from these substantially in the last two
periods. In a 2010 article published centuries
in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, gerontologist While the earliest forms of
and evolutionary biologist Caleb written communication date back to
Finch describes the average life about 3,500-3,000 BCE, literacy
spans in ancient Greek and Roman remained for centuries a very
times as short at approximately of 20 restricted technology closely
to 35 years, though he laments these associated with the exercise of
numbers are based on “notoriously power. It was only until the Middle
unrepresentative” graveyard epitaphs Ages that book production started
and samples. Unhygienic living growing and literacy among the
conditions and little access to general population slowly started
effective medical care meant life becoming important in the Western
expectancy was likely limited to World.2 In fact, while the ambition
about 35 years of age. of universal literacy in Europe was
a fundamental reform born from the Prosperity is a very recent
Enlightenment, it took centuries for achievement that distinguishes the
it to happen. It was only in the 19th last 10 or 20 generations from all
and 20th centuries that rates of of their ancestors. In 2016, the
literacy approached universality in average GDP per capita was 14,574
early-industrialized countries. international-$ – more than 10-
times the average of the past.
The following visualization
presents estimates of world literacy
for the period 1800-2016. As we can
see, literacy rates grew constantly
but rather slowly until the beginning
of the twentieth century. And the
rate of growth really climbed after
the middle of the 20th century, when
the expansion of basic education
became a global priority. You can
read more about the expansion of
education systems around the world in
our entry on Financing Education.

Economic Growth
by Max Roser 2019
Gross domestic product is higher
during the common era.
The chart below shows the economic
growth in different world regions
since 1870.
What we learn from this chart
is that on average the people of
the past were many times poorer
than we are today. In 1870 the
global GDP per capita is estimated
to be around 1,263 international-$
per year and this is already after
some world regions have achieved
economic growth. For all the
hundreds, and really thousands, of
years before 1870, the average GDP
per capita was even lower.