Unless I’m horribly mistaken in my understanding of statistics, those life expectancy charts are deeply skewed by infant mortality rates, death in childhood, and death via childbirth. I believe, that if you were a man who lived into your late teens, your life expectancy was essentially the same as a man who lived into their late teens today.
That’s not to say it’s inaccurate of course.
And the fact that the expectation is that the birth of a child will result in the child and mother going home happy and health is a remarkable change.
My grandfather was born in 1912. He had two siblings that did not make it to age 5. And that was perfectly normal and acceptable then. All his living siblings made it to 80. But it’s fun to play the math. The six who lived a full life and average life expectancy of 81. When you through in the two children who died, the average life expectancy is 61.
I recently got all our family films from the 70s put on DVD. Watching them now the one thing that jumps out is that everyone is smoking all the time and they don’t give a damn where they are doing it.
That may be the single biggest cultural change of my lifetime (born in 1973). People in 2060 are going to look at film from the 70s and wonder how everyone didn’t die of lung cancer at 45.
Did you notice a difference in weight? I’ve been sorting old pictures and am amazed at how thin people were - especially around the time of WWII. Probably before then too. Maybe it’s because of rationing? Sugar was rationed. Also, when people worked there was no way they could be sipping on a giant soda.