A newly published study shows that a 72-year-old man in present-day Japan or Sweden has as much a chance of dying as a 30-year-old man would have had back in 1800.
A newly published study shows that a 72-year-old man in present-day Japan or Sweden has as much a chance of dying as a 30-year-old man would have had back in 1800.
So, obviously, 72 is the new 30, at least in Japan or Sweden where people have the highest life expectancies.
The study, which was the work of German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, found that life expectancy in the last 100 years “has risen faster than it did in the previous 200 millennia since modern man began to evolve from hominid species,” reports The Financial Times.
The question, now, becomes how long people will eventually live. “How much longer can we extend life?” lead researcher Oskar Burger told the Financial Times. “We just don’t know.”
The main reasons for the advancements in life expectancy: antibiotics and vaccines, clean water and advancements in agriculture.