The decline in infant mortality had a huge effect, but more people today are living to their 70s and 80s than most of human history.
People definitely lived into their 60s - 80s centuries ago, but they also used to die a lot more often from infections, disease, accidents etc. Public health infrastructure (clean water and sewage), antibiotics, vaccines and drugs like statins have all helped a lot.
Maximum life expectancy though, has unfortunately remained extremely steady. It is very unlikely that anyone reading this will live past 105 without a massive tech breakthrough.
People definitely lived into their 60s - 80s centuries ago, but they also used to die a lot more often from infections, disease, accidents etc. Public health infrastructure (clean water and sewage), antibiotics, vaccines and drugs like statins have all helped a lot.
Here's a fascinating chart on date of death of US women in 1933 vs. 2014. The distribution of age at death is narrowing, and more women are making it to old age: https://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_prod/pub/web/127460_...
Maximum life expectancy though, has unfortunately remained extremely steady. It is very unlikely that anyone reading this will live past 105 without a massive tech breakthrough.