Scary Facts (22 pics)

The term "average life expectancy" is deceiving because it includes the high rate of infant mortality in past eras.
High infant mortality rate skews the "life expectancy" dramatically downward. If a couple has two children and one of them dies in childbirth while the other lives to be 90, stating that on average the couple's children lived to be 45 is statistically accurate but meaningless.
In most civilizations if you lived past 12 you would probably live another 40 or 50. In fact, the typical life span of adults has been in the 60s and 70s for thousands of years.
When Socrates died at the age of 70 around 399 B.C., he did not die of old age but instead by execution. It is ironic that ancient Greeks lived into their 70s and older, while more than 2,000 years later modern Americans aren't living much longer.