Life expectancy in the United Kingdom was below 39 years in the year 1765, and over the course of the next two and a half centuries, it is expected to have increased by more than double, to 81.1 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout the UK's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. These changes were the result of smallpox epidemics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new sanitary and medical advancements throughout time (such as compulsory vaccination), and the First world War and Spanish Flu epidemic in the 1910s.
Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020*
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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), & Gapminder. (June 17, 2019). Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020* [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved December 22, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), und Gapminder. "Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020*." Chart. June 17, 2019. Statista. Accessed December 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), Gapminder. (2019). Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020*. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: December 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), and Gapminder. "Life Expectancy (from Birth) in The United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020*." Statista, Statista Inc., 17 Jun 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) & Gapminder, Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020* Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/ (last visited December 22, 2024)
Life expectancy (from birth) in the United Kingdom from 1765 to 2020* [Graph], United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), & Gapminder, June 17, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/