Food and nutrition
Life expectancy in France was about 35 until what year?
Industrial Revolution
Productivity improving technologies (historical) Industrial Revolution Life expectancy Life expectancy Demographics of Cambodia
Productivity_improving_technologies_(historical)-Improvement_in_living_standards Industrial_Revolution-Food_and_nutrition Life_expectancy-Life_expectancy_vs._life_span Life_expectancy-Life_expectancy_variation_over_time Demographics_of_Cambodia-Life_expectancy
Chronic hunger and malnutrition were the norm for the majority of the population of the world including England and France, until the latter part of the 19th century. Until about 1750, in large part due to malnutrition, life expectancy in France was about 35 years, and only slightly higher in England. The U.S. population of the time was adequately fed, were much taller and had life expectancies of 45–50 years. The gains in standards of living have been accomplished largely through increases in productivity. In the U.S. the amount of personal consumption that could be bought with one hour of work was about $3.00 in 1900 and increased to about $22 by 1990, measured in 2010 dollars. For comparison, a U. S. worker today earns more (in terms of buying power) working for ten minutes than subsistence workers, such as the English mill workers that Fredrick Engels wrote about in 1844, earned in a 12 hour day. 
Chronic hunger and malnutrition were the norm for the majority of the population of the world including Britain and France, until the latter part of the 19th century. Until about 1750, in large part due to malnutrition, life expectancy in France was about 35 years, and only slightly higher in Britain. The U.S. population of the time was adequately fed, were much taller and had life expectancy of 45–50 years. In Britain and the Netherlands food supply had been increasing and prices falling before the Industrial Revolution due to better agricultural practices; however, population was increasing as well, as noted by Thomas Malthus. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, advances in agriculture or technology soon led to an increase in population, which again strained food and other resources, limiting increases in per capita income. This condition is called the Malthusian trap, and it was finally overcome by industrialization. Transportation improvements, such as canals and improved roads, also lowered food costs. Railroads were introduced near the end of the Industrial Revolution.
 vs. life span. Life expectancy is often confused with life span to the point that they are nearly synonyms; when people hear 'life expectancy was 35 years' they often interpret this as meaning that people of that time or place had short life spans. Just because the life expectancy is set to a certain number doesn't mean that one can't exceed this set number. It's more like an average One such example can be seen in the "In Search of..." episode "The Man Who Would Not Die" (About Count of St. Germain), where it is stated "Evidence recently discovered in the British Museum indicates that St. Germain may have well been the long lost third son of Rákóczi born in Transylvania in 1694. If he died in Germany in 1784, he lived 90 years. The average life expectancy in the 18th century was 35 years. Fifty was a ripe old age. "Ninety"... was forever. "This ignores the fact that the life expectancy generally quoted is the "at birth" number, which is an "average" that includes all the babies that die before their first year of life as well as people that die from disease and war. The genetics of humans and rate of aging were no different in pre-industrial societies than today, but people frequently died young because of untreatable diseases, accidents, and malnutrition. Many women did not survive childbirth, and individuals who reached old age were likely to succumb quickly to health problems. It can be argued that it is better to compare life expectancies of the period after childhood to get a better handle on life span. Life expectancy can change dramatically after childhood, as is demonstrated by the Roman Life Expectancy table where "at birth" the life expectancy was 25 but at the age of 5 it jumped to 48. Studies like Plymouth Plantation; "Dead at Forty" and Life Expectancy by Age, 1850–2004 similarly show a dramatic increase in life expectancy once adulthood was reached. 
 variation over time. The following information is derived from "Encyclopædia Britannica", 1961. and other sources, some with a questionable accuracy. Unless otherwise stated, it represents estimates of the life expectancies of the population as a whole. In many instances, life expectancy varied considerably according to class and gender. Life expectancy at birth takes account of infant mortality, but not pre-natal mortality. Life expectancy increases with age as the individual survives the higher mortality rates associated with childhood. For instance, the table above listed the life expectancy at birth in Medieval Britain at 30. Having survived until the age of 21, a male member of the English aristocracy in this period could expect to live:  1200–1300: to age 64  1300–1400: to age 45 (due to the impact of the bubonic plague)  1400–1500: to age 69  1500–1550: to age 71 In general, the available data indicate that longer lifespans became more common recently in human evolution. This increased longevity is attributed by some writers to cultural adaptations rather than genetic evolution, although some research indicates that during the Neolithic Revolution natural selection favored increased longevity. Nevertheless, all researchers acknowledge the effect of cultural adaptations upon life expectancy. During the early 1600s in England, life expectancy was only about 35 years, largely because two-thirds of all children died before the age of four. The life expectancy was under 25 years in the Colony of Virginia, and in seventeenth-century New England, about 40 per cent died before reaching adulthood. During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829. Public health measures are credited with much of the recent increase in life expectancy. During the 20th century, the average lifespan in the United States increased by more than 30 years, of which 25 years can be attributed to advances in public health. In order to assess the quality of these additional years of life, 'healthy life expectancies' have been calculated for the last 30 years. Since 2001, the World Health Organization has published statistics called Healthy life expectancy (HALE), defined as the average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health", excluding the years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury. Since 2004, Eurostat publishes annual statistics called Healthy Life Years (HLY) based on reported activity limitations. The United States of America uses similar indicators in the framework of their nationwide health promotion and disease prevention plan "Healthy People 2010". An increasing number of countries are using health expectancy indicators to monitor the health of their population. 
In 1959, life expectancy at birth was 44.2 years for males and 43.3 years for females. By 1970, life expectancy had increased by about 2.5 years since 1945. The greater longevity for females apparently reflected improved health practices during maternity and childbirth. 