# A Question of Age

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-age/38097>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 24, 2000, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-age/38097 "2000-10-24T12:40:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-age/38097/1 "2000-10-24T12:40:01Z")

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Watching the Today Show congratulate people on their 100+ birthday made me start thinking. What is the average life expextancy now (for females and males)? Also, what I was mainly wondering is what is the standard deviation for the two genders? I would assume that females would have a bigger deviation but they do have a longer life expextancy so I don’t know.

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-age/38097/2 "2000-10-24T14:58:29Z")

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I think it’s 80 for females and 75 for males. This is an average.

Basically, people who have lead healthy life style and/or are lucky have _always_ been able to live to 100. It’s the lowering of death rates for people younger than 50 that has inched the expected lifespan up.

Before the 20th Century, the factor that kept the average life span lower was infant mortality.

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-age/38097/3 "2000-10-24T15:05:36Z")

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I think it’s 80 for females and 75 for males. This is an average.

Basically, people who have lead healthy life style and/or are lucky have _always_ been able to live to 100. It’s the lowering of death rates for people younger than 50 that has inched the expected lifespan up.

Before the 20th Century, the factor that kept the average life span lower was infant mortality.