OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER?
 Press  scare stories suggests that an aging population is  both a recent phenomenon and an increasing economic burden. History  shows this to be a simplistic view. In the past, says Pat H, old people  weren't as rare as we think - it's the concept of "'retirement" that's  new  <snip> 

 THE common belief that, in the past, most people died in middle age  arises from confusing average life expectancy at birth (which averages  together deaths earlier and later in life) with the life chances of  those who survived the hazardous years of childhood. Those who did  survive had a high probability of being pretty fit and living to a good age. Even at the end of the 16th century (the earliest time for which we have reasonably good statistics for England and Wales) about seven per cent of the population was aged 60 or over. One hundred  years later it had risen to about nine per cent, rising further to 10  per cent in the early 18th century. In the 19th century, when high  birth rates increased the proportion of younger people, the percentage  of old people was historically exceptionally low at under seven per cent.
 But does it make sense to choose 60 as the threshold of old  age in all times? Surprisingly, even in ancient Greece the formal  obligation to military service did not end until the age of 60 and men  were indeed called up in their fifties. In England, from the 14th  century the Statute of Labourers fixed 60 as the upper age for compulsory labour and 70 was the age limit for jury service. These  age-limits could hardly have survived if they had been quite out of  line with popular perceptions of when old age began.

This is the most detailed breakdown of age at death in earlier times that I have seen. Unfortunately there is no source for the data but it seems unlikely that anybody would make this up in such detail. The writer was a doctor who published this in Chicago, so presumably the stats are American. The numbers are for men and women together but since it has been well documented (in extracts to be found in the history section ) that even then more women survived to later ages, one can say with confidence that more than half the survivors beyond the age of menopause (said to be mid forties at that time) were women. That is to say that 50% to 60% of all females born lived past menopause, some of them for a very long time past. [A later find is 1875 English stats which do discrimate between male and females]

But although the average life of man is now about forty years, it is far longer than the average of life a century ago. If we study statistics and history we will realize that in proportion as cleanliness and the laws of hygiene have been observed the life of man has been extended. Public hygiene in the way of sewerage, pure drinking water and municipal cleanliness deserves great credit for the prolongation of life. Could individual hygiene be as practically carried out as public hygiene has been, the results would be far greater. But public hygiene is woefully defective at present in spite of the great improvement over the past.

When we reflect that a large proportion of human beings in the large cities are too ignorant and filthy by nature to consider the subjects of cleanliness and hygiene, and that another large proportion of persons are totally indifferent to such matters, we cannot wonder that human life is so short. But could we exclude from the calculation the infants who die under five years of age, we would have a much greater average of life; for over one-fourth of all human beings die before they reach the fifth year of existence.

Taking 1,000 human beings:

268 die before the 5th year,

85 die between the 5th and 10th years,

18 die between the 10th and 15th years,

50 die between the 15th and 25th years,

62 die between the 25th and 85th years,

62 die between the 85th and 45th years,

89 die between the 45th and 55th years,

92 die between the 55th and 65th years,

148 die between the 65th and 75th years,

128 die between the 75th and 85th years,

56 die between the 85th and 95th years.

The earliest birth was in 1803 and the woman died aged 37 (2 years earlier she had lost 2 sons aged 2 and 5 within a week of each other. I think one can assume some sort of infection or hygiene problem.) Discounting two babies neither of whom lived beyond 3 months, and an 11 yearold, not one other female died before age 51.  8 out of the 15 females lived to be 68 or more - one of them to be 101 - yet the "average" age at death was only 54. 

This demonstrates how drastically early deaths skew the "average" which is usually the mean. In this case the "median" variety of average was 61. Not that anybody died at 61 - I had to calculate the midpoint between the 55 and 68 ages at which somebody *did* die. The "mode"? 68 and 86 (2 each)

Taking into account the 1869 book extract  which claims 45 as the expected "average" age for menopause, here we have at least 8 women outlasting meno by 20 to 50 or more years. (Tishy)

 The footnote from that names E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield _The Population History of England, 1541-1871: A Reconstruction_ and states that they found that from 1550-1599 a 30 year old male could expect to live another 29.2 years while his female counterpart could live another 30.2 years. 
lblanch000 

Livia Drusilla 58bc-29ad
Empress Helena 250 - 329 
Aisha 614-678
Empress Adelheid 931-999
Adele de Blois 1056-1137
Hildegard von Bingen 1098-1179
Eleanor of Aquitaine 1122-1204
Christine de Pizan 1365-1429
Juana la Loca de Castille 1479 - 1555
Christine of Sweden 1626-1689
Elisabeth Christine of Prussia 1715-1797
Marie Caroline of Sicily 1752-1814
Fanny Cerrito 1817-1909

Elisabeth-Charlotte of Palatine (1652-1722) had a deep mistrust towards the doctors of her time and attributed her stable health to the fact that she refused to let them treat her. 

I have also checked some of my literature of women of past centuries who lived past menopause (published diaries, correspondence) - my personal impression so far is that they complained about the usual problems of aging more than about typical menopausal symptoms (old age in women was more respected in past centuries than it is in ours BTW - the situation in Richard Strauss's opera "Der Rosenkavalier" where a very young man is in love with a much older woman is not just fiction - it shows the attitude of the time quite weell). And in Medieval and Renaissance times many a younger apprentice married the much older widow of a guild master to get into the business.

I'll stop here - but I have a lot more if necessary. *Of course* many, many women and men died too early in past centuries, *of course* there have been devastating diseases and life was a lot rougher than today - but there is more than enough evidence about old age in both men and women over the centuries.

Sonja