• TempleSquare@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    More adults are alive now than adults who died.

    Most of humanity didn’t survive to adulthood.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Which is why the average life expectancy was in the 30s forever. If you made it past childhood you were likely to make it to old age, but the infant mortality rate was through the roof which brought the average down to less than half of what it is today. People regularly lived into their 70s-80s before, but the average of 30 years makes people think that’s all the longer people normally lived.