“By one reckoning, life expectancy on Earth improved by as much in the twentieth century as in the whole of the preceding eight thousand years. The average life span for an American male went from 46 years in 1900 to 74 by century’s end. For American women, the improvement was better still—from 48 to 80. Elsewhere, the improvements have been little short of breathtaking. A woman born in Singapore today can expect to live for 87.6 years, more than double what her great-grandmother could have counted on. Across the planet as a whole, life expectancy grew from 48.1 years for men in 1950 (which is as far back as global records reliably go) to 70.5 today; for women the rise was from 52.9 to 75.6 years. In 1950, 216 children in every thousand—nearly a quarter—died before the age of five. Today the figure is just 38.9 early childhood deaths in a thousand—one-fifth what it was seventy years ago. Bryson, Bill. The Body (p. 355). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Bryson, Bill. The Body (p. 353). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. ”
