Myths about the Middle Ages

[Jason76]

http://localhistories.org/middlemyths.html

This link has some interesting stuff about the middle ages.

In the Middle Ages 9 out of 10 people died before the age of 40

This is not true. We do not know exactly what average life expectancy at birth was in the past but historians think it was about 35 years in the Middle Ages. (So 50% of the people born reached that age). However that does not mean that people dropped dead when they reached 35! Average life expectancy at birth was around 35 but a great many of the people born died in childhood. We don't know exactly what percentage died but if we say about 25% of people died before they were 5 years old we are probably not wide of the mark. Perhaps as many as 40% died before they reached adulthood. However if you could survive childhood and your teenage years you had a good chance of living to your 50s or your early 60s and even in the Middle Ages there were some people who lived to 70 or 80.

 

[John]

Yeah, I've heard that too. The medical technology wasn't nearly what it is now back then, which resulted in quite a few birth/infancy related deaths.

 

[Cosmic]

So you mean to say that the middle ages weren't quite like this? Haha

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Yeah. Things were much less convenient back then, and there are many important differences people forget, but things were not quite as grizzly as many think.