Haworth , the village the Brontës lived in, is another ghastly example. The conditions where so unsanitary that in 1850 the average life expectancy was 25.8 years and more than 40% died before the age of 6.
Except for Charlotte Brontë who made it to 38, all the Brontë children died by 31. And they probably didn’t even drink the water contaminated by runoff from the graveyard, as they had their own water source.
Another fun fact for the history nerds: B. Herschel Babbage, the guy who investigated the conditions on the invitation of the Brontë sisters’ father, was the son of mathematician Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Analytical Engine.
Average life expectancy (as pretty much any average) is a very misleading measurement, though, because it is highly skewed towards the low end due to extremely high infant mortality.
I guess it comes down to what you take it to mean. If I read a low average life expectancy, my default assumption is that many people die very young. And I even added the statistics about high infant mortality, so it should be pretty clear that that’s where it comes from?
Haworth , the village the Brontës lived in, is another ghastly example. The conditions where so unsanitary that in 1850 the average life expectancy was 25.8 years and more than 40% died before the age of 6.
Except for Charlotte Brontë who made it to 38, all the Brontë children died by 31. And they probably didn’t even drink the water contaminated by runoff from the graveyard, as they had their own water source.
Another fun fact for the history nerds: B. Herschel Babbage, the guy who investigated the conditions on the invitation of the Brontë sisters’ father, was the son of mathematician Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Analytical Engine.
Average life expectancy (as pretty much any average) is a very misleading measurement, though, because it is highly skewed towards the low end due to extremely high infant mortality.
I guess it comes down to what you take it to mean. If I read a low average life expectancy, my default assumption is that many people die very young. And I even added the statistics about high infant mortality, so it should be pretty clear that that’s where it comes from?