Life expectancy in Westeros

[Vaedys Targaryen]

Not quite sure if this has been discussed before, but the title says it all; what is the average life expectancy in Westeros?

I suppose we can kind of look at some of the older characters and their age:

 

Jaehaerys I lived to be sixty-nine years old and was called The Old King, despite the fact that sixty-nine is not that old (in our world).

Roose Bolton is described as being a little older than forty, but he keeps talking about how if Ramsay doesn't kill the child he has with Walda, Roose will most likely not see the child grow into adulthood.

Elaena Targaryen reached the age of seventy or older, according to the Wiki.

 

These are just a few examples, but what do you guys think? Can you give any other examples and what can we conclude from the older characters who died of natural causes and not killed?

[Liaraeyne]

Walder Frey is older than 90 and still alive, but he could very well count as an exception. 

Old nan was around when Eddard was a kid. No one knows her age but she is described as very old.

Ser Jorah describes himself as 'thrice your age' to Daenerys, that makes his age approx. late thirties or early forties. His father, Jeor Mormont, was still alive in the first and second book. That makes him about 60, I think. He had a really good health (he would likely have survived the ranging had he not been killed).

Those are all the examples I can think of right now.

I think a (relatively) rich Westerosi can expect to live to 65/70, if not killed.

[Rise]

I agree that nobles can expect to life 65/70.

I remember reading my school history book that peoples average livespan in medieval times was 45 years. So i think thats migh bet smallfolks average lifespan.  someone who has better information can correct.

[Ser Scott Malkinson]

We don't know how old Hoster Tully was, but I'd estimate him to be in his fifties, maybe sixties. Maester Aemon seems to have been the oldest man alive at 102 when he died. In the Dunk & Egg series, Ser Arlan of Pennytree died when 'he must have been closer to sixty than fifty, and how many men can say that?'. I don't think we've seen many other natural deaths, except for all the mothers dying during childbirth (Joanna Lannister, Lyanna Stark, Rhaella Targaryen, Minisa Whent) who must all have been relatively young. 

Of course, most of the people we see are nobles who live relatively long lives when compared to the average Westerosi, so we have to take that into account as well. Overall, I'd estimate the average life expectancy in Westeros at about forty.

[Free Northman Reborn]

Average life expectancy is not the same thing as the age that most older people die at. It takes into account infant mortality too, as well as premature deaths at every age. So if you take the overall average life expectancy of a person born in Westeros, it will likely be around 30 years or thereabouts.

However, if you make it past 30 or so, I'd guess you can generally expect to make it to your early sixties maybe?

[estermonty python]

On 11/3/2016 at 9:42 AM, Free Northman Reborn said:

Average life expectancy is not the same thing as the age that most older people die at. It takes into account infant mortality too, as well as premature deaths at every age. So if you take the overall average life expectancy of a person born in Westeros, it will likely be around 30 years or thereabouts.

However, if you make it past 30 or so, I'd guess you can generally expect to make it to your early sixties maybe?

Yes thank you for bringing this up.  this is a point that confuses a lot of people, and I'm not convinced that GRRM isn't confused on this point as well.  The reason "life expectancy" was so low in the Middle Ages was because of the astronomically high infant mortality rates, NOT because people who lived to adulthood were dying younger.  So there's no reason a nobleman wouldn't have a life expectancy in his 60s or 70s (probably younger for peasants due to their poor diet).  GRRM sometimes makes references to someone in his or her 30s being "old," which feels wrong, but I think that may be an intentional POV skewing, since most of his POVs are kids or teenagers who view someone in their 30s as old.

[IdoTheChoombi]

As others said, the statistic about life expectancy in pre-industrial times being 45 years is very misleading.

The chances of a newborn to survive to adulthood were about 1/3 or 1/4, if you only count people who died aged 10+, the life expectancy rises to 60-70.

The advances of medicine didn't make people live longer so much as make them stop dying young.