• not a martian, honest@dice.camp
    8·
    3 months ago

    @lugal @EfreetSK child mortality rates were pretty fucking high in earlier times. Around the time the original poem was published 40-50% of children under 15 died.

    Only vaccines and modern medicine put this down to 4.2% globally in 2022, with the most developed countries reaching 0.3%

    That is to say… that poem had a point.

    Long-term Diagram of child mortality showing a sharp drop from 50% over most of hostory to close to 0-5% at current times

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      yup. childhood mortality was so high that average lifespan was 40-ish years, but life expectancy at age 20 would be 60-70 years old.